Employee Owed More Severance Because He was Fired in June

Does it matter in which month an employee is fired? According to decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Fraser v Canerector Inc., 2015 ONSC 2138 (CanLII), the answer is “yes.”

In his reasons for decision granting the plaintiff 50% more reasonable notice than he otherwise would have awarded, the Honourable Justice Sean F. Dunphy wrote:

I must also account for the time of year when his employment was terminated in assessing reasonable notice. Mr. Fraser’s employment was terminated in June and it was quite foreseeable that hiring decisions at his level might have needed to be delayed somewhat due to the summer months in order to account for vacation schedules of key decision-makers.

Dispute about Availability of Similar Employment Grounds to Dismiss Plaintiff’s Summary Judgment Motion

Will summary judgment be appropriate in a wrongful dismissal action if the issue of the plaintiff’s mitigation efforts are hotly contested? According to a 2013, pre-Hryniak decision, the answer can sometimes be “no.”

In a case where the primary concern was that of availability of similar employment, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice refused to grant summary judgment in an otherwise straightforward wrongful dismissal matter.