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Our Toronto severance pay lawyers at 55 University Avenue calculate your true ESA termination and severance pay entitlements, your common law reasonable notice, advise on whether your package is fair, and negotiate or litigate when employers underpay. Most employees who get a lawyer review their package receive significantly more.
Book My 15-Minute Assessment →55 University Avenue, Toronto | Severance Pay | ESA & Common Law Entitlements | Package Review & Negotiation | Initial Assessments
When most Ontarians say "severance pay," they mean the entire termination package. The money an employer pays when ending the employment relationship. But under Ontario law, there are actually two separate statutory entitlements that can exist alongside each other: termination pay and severance pay. And above and beyond both, there is the common law reasonable notice entitlement.
Termination pay under the ESA is based on years of service, up to a maximum of 8 weeks for employees with 8 or more years. It is payable to virtually all employees on termination without cause. Severance pay under the ESA is a separate, additional entitlement available to employees with 5 or more years of service whose employer has a payroll of $2.5 million or more, or whose position is eliminated as part of a mass termination, up to 26 weeks.
Above these statutory minimums sits common law reasonable notice. The amount courts will award a dismissed employee who was not given adequate notice. For a 45-year-old manager with 12 years of service, that could easily be 14 to 18 months. For a senior executive, it could be more. The gap between what employers offer and what employees are legally owed is often enormous.
Our Toronto severance pay lawyers review hundreds of termination packages every year. We calculate the correct ESA entitlements (many employers miscalculate these), the common law reasonable notice based on the Bardal factors, and the value of any benefits and bonus entitlements during the notice period. We tell you exactly what you should have been paid, and we pursue it.
We appear in Ontario employment courts regularly. Here are the courts relevant to your matter.
Significant severance pay claims are brought in Ontario Superior Court. Most resolve before trial, at mediation or through negotiated settlement, but effective litigation posture requires court proceedings in appropriate cases.
ESA complaints about unpaid termination or severance pay can also be brought to the Ministry of Labour's Employment Standards Branch, a free enforcement mechanism available alongside civil court claims.
We advise Toronto employees at every stage, from reviewing the package on day one of termination through to court proceedings.
We review every component of your termination package: the termination letter, the Release and Full and Final Settlement, ESA calculations (which are frequently incorrect), notice period and PILON calculations, benefit continuation, bonus and commission treatment during the notice period, and any restrictive covenants. We give you a clear picture of what you were owed versus what you were offered, and the gap between them.
Most Toronto severance negotiations are resolved without litigation. Once we have calculated your true entitlement and identified the deficiencies in the initial offer, we approach the employer's counsel with a demand. Employers who know they are facing a well-prepared wrongful dismissal claim typically settle, because litigation is expensive for them too. We negotiate with the specific goal of maximizing your net outcome after legal fees.
One of the most consistently underpaid components of severance in Toronto is the loss of bonus and commission during the notice period. Ontario courts have consistently held that employees are entitled to bonuses and commissions they would have earned during the reasonable notice period, even if the employment agreement says otherwise in some cases. We analyze your bonus plan, commission structure, and recent earnings to quantify this entitlement accurately.
At senior level the notice period is longer and the variable compensation is frequently the larger part of the claim. Executive severance covers bonus and equity entitlement and the restrictive covenants buried in the release.
An offer that exceeds the statutory minimum can still be well below the entitlement. Statutory minimums and reasonable notice explains why they are two different things.
Our Toronto employment lawyers offer 15-minute initial assessments. Do not sign your severance package before speaking with us, call today.
55 University Ave, Suite 1100
Toronto, ON M5J 2H7
90 Matheson Blvd W, Suite 101, Mississauga, ON L5R 3R3
2 Sheppard Ave East, Suite 303, Toronto, ON M2N 5Y7
277 Lakeshore Rd E, Suite 408, Oakville, ON L6J 1H9
Monday to Friday: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Evenings & weekends by appointment
Five questions. It will not tell you what your claim is worth, because nobody can do that from five answers. It will tell you which rules are engaged and what is running out.
This is general information about Ontario law, not legal advice, and it does not create a solicitor client relationship. It gives no estimate of value. Lexaltico LLP is regulated by the Law Society of Ontario.
Our Toronto employment lawyers offer 15-minute initial assessments. Do not sign your severance package before speaking with us, call today.
55 University Ave, Suite 1100
Toronto, ON M5J 2H7
90 Matheson Blvd W, Suite 101, Mississauga, ON L5R 3R3
2 Sheppard Ave East, Suite 303, Toronto, ON M2N 5Y7
277 Lakeshore Rd E, Suite 408, Oakville, ON L6J 1H9
Monday to Friday: 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Evenings & weekends by appointment
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