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With more people returning to the office and with concerns about an economic slowdown – 31,000 jobs were lost in July – now’s a good time to get a handle on your employment rights.
“Everyone thinks that they know a lot about employment law; they think they understand what the law says. And most of the information you believe to be true, maybe you believed for years, is, in fact, wrong,” says Lior Samfiru, a Toronto employment lawyer and national co-managing partner of Toronto-based Samfiru Tumarkin LLP.
It’s tempting to look to the web for guidance, but there’s a lot of incorrect information out there. Here are six common myths about rights and the workplace.
Myth: Temporary layoffs are legal, even during the pandemic
In spring 2020, the Ontario government implemented the infectious disease emergency leave, which seemingly allowed employers to temporarily lay off staff if the company was struggling because of COVID-19. This rule expired on July 31, 2022, which means companies can no longer use this reason as an excuse to try to temporarily lay off employees.
Samfiru recently spoke to an employee who’s been off work for two years and whose employer said the leave is now being extended into a layoff. “That's illegal,” says Samfiru, who appears weekly on CP24’s Ask a Lawyer. “Enough is enough. This is a termination of employment,” he says, which means the employee is entitled to potentially 24 months of severance.
Samfiru points out that an...
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