Employees who have been fired in Alberta are entitled to severance and notice or pay in lieu of notice.
Severance is a payment considered to compensate employees for years of service and losses they experience on termination. Severance is set out in the Employment Standards Code. In Alberta, Employment Standards Amounts start at 1 week after a year's service and max out at 8 weeks.
Employers can give actual working notice, where they tell the employee months or years in advance that they will be fired, but are to keep working in the meantime. For obvious reasons, this is not ideal. See our article on working notice: https://www.flodenward.com/post/what-is-working-notice
Pay In lieu of notice is the damages that an employer must pay for wrongfully terminating an employee. It is based on many factors, such as job type, years of service, age, salary and a number of other factors. Once the notice period has been determined then the amount of the damages can be confirmed. Employees are entitled to all compensation and bonuses they would have earned in the notice period , as recently confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada in Matthews v. Ocean Nutrition2020 SCC 26. For our article on this case: https://www.flodenward.com/post/fired-in-alberta-supreme-court-of-canada-clarifies-bonus-and-good-faith-issues-in-employment-law .
If you have any questions regarding pay-in-lieu of notice, please feel free to contact us.
The information contained in this article is not legal advice. No solicitor client relationship is formed through this article. The reader is encouraged to retain counsel for advice in these matters.
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