Being dismissed from a job is always a stressful and unpleasant situation as you have to find out your next step to earn your bread and butter. Your right to have the severance pay and termination pay depend on the cause and circumstances of your dismissal. Therefore, before signing any employment contract make sure to consult your Employment lawyer in Toronto. Your experienced employment attorney will review the severance package that your employer has offered you and advise you how to get maximum benefits of the severance package. Grievously, many employees get very less severance than they are owed to.
Difference between a Severance Package and Severance Pay
A severance package is considered as a total payout that a dismissed worker will receive. On the contrary, Severance pay is a term in the Employment Standards Act where the employees are compensated for their losses (e.g. loss of seniority, it happens when a long-term worker is fired). Moreover, employees are applicable to receive severance pay who have worked for the employer at least 5 years and, the boss must either have severed fifty-plus workers in 6 months consequently of a business closure or have a payroll of $2.5 million.
The following are the primary scenarios in which Canadian are dismissed:
- Terminated With Cause
An employee in Canada can be fired with a solid reason. It means that there must be a misconduct behavior of an employee which causes serious harm to the employment relationship, such as burglary, violent behavior, fraud rising to the level of gross misconduct. In such situations, the guilty employee will not obtain any termination or severance pay. If you are also one of them who have been terminated for just cause, you must consult an experienced employment attorney as it might be a case for wrongful dismissal.
- Terminated Without Cause
Employees are terminated in Canada without cause as well, however in such cases; employers provide the suitable amount of “notice” or “pay in lieu of notice” to the employee. The Employment Standards Act sets out the least claims that a dismissed worker receives. The amount of the claim depends on the length of service that a terminated employee has provided. The provision in the employment agreement must be explicit and unequivocal as any technical violations of the Employment Standards Act may cause the provision canceled. For better advice, make sure to contact your employment attorney.
