Author: Site Editor

Many employees are unaware of their entitlements on termination. Today, we’ll explore the three components of a typical severance package in Ontario:🔹 Statutory Notice Pay in LieuDetermined by the Employment Standards Act (ESA).🔹 Statutory Severance PayDefined under the ESA.🔹 Common Law EntitlementsEmployees are nearly always entitled to additional compensation beyond statutory minimum...

In wrongful dismissal cases, the onus is on the employer to prove a failure to mitigate.Mitigation is about the search for alternative comparable employment, and there’s a two-part test:1) Whether the employee’s efforts were reasonable, and2) Whether the employer can demonstrate that comparable employment could have been found.What makes this test so fascinating is that the bar...

What are the Bardal Factors?The four factors (age, length of service, character of employment, availability of similar employment) are commonly referred to as the “Bardal factors” and are how courts primarily determine a reasonable notice period for terminated employees.Let’s take a closer look.AgeUnfortunately, age discrimination is alive and well in the workforce. Aging employees will have...

Introducing: Water Cooler Justice, a new podcast by Robertson LawWater Cooler Justice with Robertson Law explores the push and pull of business and fairness through the lens of employment. In each episode, we will hear a real life example of workplace drama, the rights of the employee and responsibility of the employer, and our approach to a fair turn out.We will then turn it over to our...

Trying to understand your termination offer? There’s some magic in the numbers.If you’ve been given a severance package and you’re wondering if the offer is fair, there are a few easy things to check:1) Does the offer have more than a week for acceptance or advise you to seek independent legal advice? These suggest that employer may have some confidence (rightfully or wrongfully) in...

Are we in a recession or not?Let’s take employment as a measurement of our economy’s health. In July, the private sector lost 42,000 jobs and the public sector gained 41,000 jobs.The “math isn’t mathing” as the kids would say.Where is the money coming from?If it takes over $1.00 tax dollar to fund every $1.00 of public wages, you’d expect that private...

Employers claim that the post-pandemic labour shortage has led to over-compensation for recent hires. This is a common misconception. Here’s why: after tax median family income rose by 2.5% in 2022. However, after adjusting for inflation we can see that:Median family income was 4.0% lower year over yearYoung family income was 5.2% lower year over yearSingle parent income was 8.5%...

Recently, there has been a lot of writing about the correlation between housing and immigration in Toronto and the rest of Canada.We find this too simplistic.Whether Canada is in a population trap or not, it’s clear that infrastructure, housing, and services such as hospital care are stretched thin, particularly in Toronto. Capital has and will continue to be redirected from investments in...

Older employees face unique challenges in today’s workforce. Let’s explore some of those key challenges: 🔹 Retirement Planning Older employees are currently making critical decisions, especially regarding new tax regulations. The decision of whether to trigger the new capital gains tax before June 2024 can significantly impact retirement planning for older employees with...

It would be easy to assume that since Canadian workers receive an average of 10 vacation days per year—far less than the minimum of 4 weeks in many European countries—Canada would have higher productivity. However, this isn’t the case. In reality, Canada’s productivity levels have steadily declined over the past 40 years.  Recently, the Bank of Canada has highlighted low...