How much notice of resignation must an employee provide?
It is a commonly held belief that employees must provide two weeks’ notice when they resign from their employment. However, this blanket statement does not necessarily reflect the applicable legal requirements. While two weeks’ notice is appropriate in many cases, some employees may be required to provide less notice, and other employees may be required to provide significantly more.
How much notice of resignation is an employee required to provide? The answer depends on several sources, including: (1) the applicable employment standards legislation; (2) the employment contract; and (3) the common law (if it has not been modified by an enforceable employment contract). The focus of this blog post is on the enforceability of a contractual resignation requirement. In the absence of an enforceable contractual provision, employers should consult the applicable legislation and seek legal advice regarding the common law requirements.
In BlackBerry Ltd. v Marineau-Mes, 2014 ONSC 1790, … Continue reading “How much notice of resignation must an employee provide?”
Avoiding common employment law misconceptions
Small to midsize employers, many HR professionals, and many lawyers proceed based upon completely inaccurate understandings of how employment law works. While there are many examples of this, there are three that I see regularly in my practice:
- the myth that the severance entitlement in Canada is one month per year, regardless of other factors such as age or position;
- the belief that every employee is automatically subject to a probationary period; and
- the belief that when there is a shortage of work, employers automatically have the right to lay employees off temporarily.
As counsel, part of our job is to ensure that both employers and employees understand their rights and obligations. In many cases, employers break the law not out of a desire to shortchange their employee, but simply due to a misunderstanding. Sadly, in many of those cases, the employee in question does not know any better and … Continue reading “Avoiding common employment law misconceptions”