Employer responsibilities in wrongful dismissal?

responsibilities in wrongful dismissal

Often when people hear the term wrongful dismissal, they think of an employer firing a person for illegal or unfair reasons. However, the reality is that both employees and employers have responsibilities when it comes to wrongful termination. While employers have a right to control their workforce, they cannot violate basic human rights in the process of doing so.

As a former employee, you may feel like your employer is using wrongful termination as an excuse to fire you. If this is the case, it’s important to remember that you have legal options for recourse, such as filing a claim against your employer for wrongful termination. While it can be terrifying to be fired, having a Toronto wrongful dismissal lawyer on your side could help you get your life back together.

In legal terms, wrongful dismissal is the termination of an employment relationship by an employer for illegal or unfair reasons. It is an area of law that covers both unionized and non-unionized workplaces, though the discussion here primarily focuses on non-unionized environments. The areas of the law relating to wrongful dismissal differ between unionized and non-unionized environments, with union workers having additional protections and rights under their collective agreements.

Employer responsibilities in wrongful dismissal?

It’s also worth noting that there are both statutory and common law obligations that employers must meet in order to avoid a wrongful dismissal lawyer termination claim from an employee. In the statutory sense, the most important obligation is to give an adequate notice period before terminating an employee. This is usually determined by how long an employee has been employed at a company, with 3 years or more being the threshold. This length of time is then multiplied by the length of service to determine the amount of notice a worker is entitled to receive before being terminated.

An employer also must make sure that they are not breaching any written or implied promises of good faith and fair dealing. This means that if they have promised to offer certain benefits in an employment contract or written policies, they must do so, otherwise this can constitute a breach of contract and be grounds for wrongful termination. In addition, an employer must not break any laws, such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act or the Canadian Human Rights Code, by firing someone for reporting a violation of these rules.

While an employer is allowed to fire an employee for almost any reason unless they have a contractual or legal duty not to do so, if they do, the resulting claim for wrongful termination can be very complex. For example, if an employee has a fixed term contract and is fired prior to the expiry of that contract, they are legally entitled to their full salary.

Another example is if an employee has a disability and is fired in retaliation for making a complaint under the OHSA or the HRC. This would be considered a wrongful termination and a claim for punitive damages may be appropriate. Punitive damages are not intended to compensate a plaintiff, but rather to express society’s repugnance for the conduct and deter others from engaging in similar behaviour.