Dealing With a Wrongful Dismissal against Your Employer in Canada
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Client’s URL: https://www.levittllp.com/service/wrongful-dismissal-lawyer/
Publisher’s URL: careerguide.com
In an ideal workplace, there would be no problems, and every workplace would be professional. But that is not the case in reality. Employers end up firing people working from them for a variety of reasons that are entirely wrong or unjust.
If you feel like you have been fired wrongfully from your last job, then you could file a lawsuit or complaint against your former employer, as stated in the Canada Labour Code.
Let’s dive further into wrongful dismissal and find out if you qualify before you go searching for the top employment lawyer in Canada.
What Is Unjust or Wrongful Dismissal?
Unjust dismissal in Ontario is when any employee who has been working for at least a year gets laid off without a reasonable cause from the employer. Also, the employer didn’t provide a termination letter or give severance pay.
What should you do if you’ve been Unjustly Dismissed?
There are several steps that you can take if you think that your dismissal was unjust. However, you should consider contacting an employment lawyer or the Labour Program first.
Send a written request to your former employer asking for the reasons for your dismissal. By law, your employer would have to respond with a valid reason within 15 days.
You shouldn’t delay this by even a single day because the timeline for filing a complaint against your employer is only 90 days long. You can do it yourself, but getting a lawyer would be better because they know what needs to be done and precisely how to go about it.
Can You Sue An Employer For Wrongful Dismissal?
If you think that the severance pay you got wasn’t enough or you didn’t get anything at all, then you can rightfully sue your former employer for wrongful dismissal. The entire purpose of the suit would be to get compensated or seek damages for the amount that should have been given.
In most cases, the suit is often settled outside of court, and your employment lawyer can negotiate a good deal that will benefit you.
How Is The Severance Calculated In A Wrongful Dismissal Case?
Severance pay is given to an employee if their employer no longer wishes to continue employing them. It can be an immediate dismissal, or it could happen shortly.
The compensation is meant to financially support the individual while they find another job. It is primarily based on the age, previous position, experience, and the industry the individual is working in.
Some other elements could also be looked at when calculating severance pay. These are the length of employment, bonuses, commissions, benefits, and skills.
What If You Felt Forced To Leave The Job?
There are many cases where the courts have held that the unjust or wrongful dismissal provisions of the Canada Labour Code even apply to a term known as constructive dismissal.
What is constructive dismissal? In this type of case, the employer doesn’t directly fire their employee. Instead, they either fail to comply with the employment contract in any significant respect, or they have changed some crucial details in terms of the employment contract. For the latter, they could also express their intentions of doing it.
In either of these cases, the employee needs to clearly inform their employer that these terms are unacceptable to them as soon as possible. What this usually leads to is the employee resigning from the job instead of complying with the new terms of the contract. This is called constructive dismissal.
If this sounds somewhat familiar, then you should go talk to an employment lawyer or the Labour Program offices.