Certain phrases in termination clauses continue to violate ESA
A Superior Court decision in Ontario has once again determined that the phrase “at any time” in a termination provision is unlawful and violates the province’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA), making the entire termination clause void and unenforceable.
The decision, Chan v. NYX Capital Corp, 2025 ONSC 4561, is one of a series of lower court decisions that represent an inconsistency in Ontario law on this language, with some decisions finding that this phrase (or those like it) violates the ESA and makes a termination clause void and enforceable - such as in Dufault v. The Corporation of the Townships of Ignace, 2024 ONSC 1029 and Baker v. Van Dolder’s Home Team Inc., 2025 ONSC 952 - with others finding that it does not (at least completely) make a termination provision unenforceable – see Jones v. Strides Toronto Support Services, 2025 ONSC 2482, Li v. Wayfair Canada ULC., 2025 ONSC 2959, and Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd., 2025 ONSC 4861).
The decision in Chan should serve to remind both employers and employees to keep a keen eye on how employment contracts are drafted and reviewed. In this case, the employee was awarded almost $45,000 in damages for a three-month notice period, despite having been terminated under an employment contract that the employer believed would allow them to terminate the employee during a probationary period without having to provide any notice.
Reginald Chan was an employee of...
Claims that Brigitte Macron is a transgender woman first emerged online in 2021 and have since gone viral. “Two billion people have been exposed to this story in French and 2.5 billion in English,...