A look at court interpretations of employment agreements and termination clauses in B.C. versus Ontario
You can tell I’m out of the loop when it comes to hockey because I still think of the Western Conference as being absolutely dominant.
To Stuart’s chagrin, the Eastern Conference’s Florida Panthers have unfortunately turned that around - in the NHL, the west coast may no longer be the best coast.
But what about in the employment law world? For employers, the west coast is the best coast when it comes to courts’ approach to the interpretation of employment agreements and termination clauses.
In Canadian law, as in hockey, Ontario gets a lot of attention. But there have been some interesting developments in jurisprudence on the opposite side of the country that indicate two differing approaches to contractual interpretation.
The Ontario employment law bar has written a whole lot about how we are firmly in a pro-employee era, as a result of a series of decisions, with the latest entries being somewhat controversial. As such, I will summarize the latest developments.
It is settled law in Ontario that a termination provision that breaches the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) will make the entire termination clause unenforceable, even if the offending provision is not relied on at the time of dismissal. Last year, the decision of Dufault v. The Corporation of the Township of Ignace made eyes roll by determining that language such as “at any time”...
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