Canada: Employment Litigation/ Tribunals

Employment agreements are often treated as risk management tools. Employers rely on them to set workplace expectations and limit liability on termination. But an agreement only serves that purpose if it actually survives judicial scrutiny, and for the past few years, termination clause litigation in Ontario has increasingly turned on whether a court can find some theoretical reading of a clause that would violate the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("ESA"), even where that plainly is not what the parties meant.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has delivered a significant ruling on employment contract termination clauses, addressing whether language permitting termination "at any time" or "for any reason" violates employment standards legislation. This decision resolves years of conflicting interpretations and provides crucial guidance on how courts should interpret termination provisions in employment agreements.

Christine Thomlinson sits down with Cory Boyd, Vice President of RT Workplace Training & Consulting Inc., to explore his 25-year journey as a workplace investigator.