Legal Guide

Do You Have a Case for Wrongful Dismissal against Your Previous Employer?

In Canada, it can be illegal to dismiss an employee without sufficient cause or notice. Now, an employer is still the boss and the owner of the business, so the company does have legal rights to both hire and fire people as necessary. Nevertheless, that previously mentioned “sufficient cause or a notice period” must be presented to you. If you are reading this, then it is likely that you or someone close to you has recently lost a job, so go through the following and see if you do have an authentic case against the former employer or not.

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What Does the Lawyer Say?

The most authentic way to get to know whether or not you actually have a case against the former employer would be to contact a lawyer who specializes in employment law and wrongful dismissals.

The name of Stacey Ball employment lawyer is famous all over Canada for more reasons than one. He has served as the employment law officer at Osgoode Hall Law School, as well as the Faculty of Law at Western, but more importantly, Stacey Reginald Ball is an expert in wrongful dismissal laws of Canada.

He has also fought and won cases against wrongful dismissals, even at the supreme court level.

Dismissed without Cause or a Notice Period

It is within the legal rights of the employer to fire anyone they do not want and without providing a cause for it. However, what is illegal in the country is the dismissal of an employee without cause or a notice period.

Each employee is entitled to a notice period, but if the employer is not willing or able to wait that long, then they are legally obligated to provide the employee with a severance package to justify the immediate termination.

In case the employee was not given a cause, a notice period or a severance package, the situation probably qualifies for wrongful termination.

Constructive Dismissal

Constructive dismissal is wrongful dismissal automatically because it involves a conspiratorial, strategic move or set of moves that lead to the employee’s forceful termination before time.

In such instances, the company doesn’t fire the worker but manipulates the working environment strategically to make him/her quit on their own, but against their will.

Common strategies used by the former employer to make the employee/employees quit will likely include changes in salary, rate/hour, working hours, working conditions, work responsibilities, job benefits, etc., without their consent or legal approval.

Discriminatory Dismissal

If you have cause to believe that the dismissal was a result of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender, appearance or a disability that isn’t in conflict with the job the employee was hired to do, you certainly have a case for wrongful dismissal.

At the end of the day, the general idea is that if you actually have doubts and you are currently dissatisfied with your dismissal, it is just better to consult a lawyer than regret later.


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