Hamilton Employment Law

Ed Canning has been practicing exclusively in the areas of employment law and human rights for 23 years in the City of Hamilton, representing both employers and employees. For 20 years, he has been writing a bi-weekly column in The Hamilton Spectator on employment law and human rights issues that are of interest to both employers and employees. In this blog, you can have access to approximately 500 articles on various subject matters ranging from Employment Standards Act issues, wrongful dismissal issues to human rights issues.

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Blog Posts

Employment Standards Act layoffs, terminations and severance pay

Ed Canning Sep 17, 2014

The Employment Standards Act says that if you lay an employee off and keep their benefits going, so long as you call them back within 35 weeks, no termination has occurred. This does not apply to employees where the possibility of a layoff is not an accepted part of their terms of employment.

Resigning won't get you more money

Ed Canning Oct 29, 2007

QUESTION: I have worked for my employer for about 4 years. The industry in which I work is going through a tough time and there have been a number of layoffs in our offices over the last couple of months. I am in a non-management business analyst position and I think that my role is going to be one of the next ones to be chopped. If I submitted a resignation in writing effective 6 months from now, and a few weeks later they decided to terminate me, would they have to pay me out for the rest of the 6 months?

LAYOFF NOT LEGAL AFTER 22 YEARS

Ed Canning Sep 17, 2004

QUESTION: After 22 years of uninterrupted service, my employer has advised me that I am on temporary lay-off with no set date for recall to work. While my boss was telling me this, he as much as admitted that they were simply trying to delay having to pay me severance. Can they do this?

MINISTRY OF LABOUR MAY GIVE MISLEADING ADVICE REGARDING LEGALITY OF LAYOFF

Ed Canning Apr 26, 2004

QUESTION: After 14 years of continuous service, last week I received a notice from my employer that I was going to be “temporarily laid off” starting in a few weeks. I have never been laid off in the past and no one has even suggested that it was a possibility. Do I have to just sit around and wait for them to call me back or have I been fired?