As we settle into 2022, it is an apt time to review some significant employment law decisions from last year. The decisions below demonstrate how employment law is continuously evolving, even in areas of the law thought to be well developed, such as length of reasonable notice and statutory severance pay.

The decisions also highlight that termination provisions and employer conduct at the time of termination continue to be significant areas of liability for employers and should be handled with the expert advice of an employment lawyer.

Nahum v. Honeycomb Hospitality Inc., 2021 ONSC 1455 (CanLII)

This summary judgment motion from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice involved an employee who was five months pregnant when she was terminated without cause after 4.5 months of employment. The sole issue was the reasonable notice period, including the impact, if any, that the plaintiff’s pregnancy had on its calculation. The plaintiff argued she was entitled to eight months’ notice, while the employer claimed a two-month notice period was more than adequate.

In finding that the plaintiff was entitled to five months’ notice, the motions judge said that the plaintiff was far enough along in her pregnancy that it would be unreasonable to expect her to obtain new employment in the two months proposed by the employer:

A noteworthy aspect is that the plaintiff did not lead any evidence around the impact of pregnancy on her employability. The motions judge reiterated what other courts...

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