Worker argued someone without legal training might misunderstand entitlements

May 26, 2025

The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court’s ruling that the termination provision in a worker’s employment contract complied with provincial employment standards legislation and successfully contracted out of common law damages.

The worker was a vice-president of Datastealth, a software company in Mississauga, Ont. Datastealth hired him with an employment contract that included a termination clause stating that “if your employment is terminated with or without cause,” he would receive only the statutory minimum payments and entitlements required under the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), including notice or termination pay, severance pay where applicable, and benefits continuation. The clause also stated that compliance with ESA minimums would satisfy any contractual or common law entitlement and “there are circumstances in which you would have no entitlement to notice of termination, termination pay, severance pay or benefit continuation.”

Additionally, the employment agreement included a clause stipulating that if any entitlements were less than ESA minimums, the worker would receive the statutory minimums instead.

Datastealth terminated the worker’s employment after he had been with the company for eight-and-a-half months, providing him with four weeks’ pay in lieu of notice. The statutory minimum under the ESA for the worker’s service time was three weeks....

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