Mitigation - Articles & Videos
The Dangers of Fixed Term Contracts
A recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal is an important reminder of how costly fixed term agreements can be for businesses when they are not used correctly.
Does a Dismissed Employee Have an Obligation to Return to Work in Order to Mitigate their Damages? It Depends!
All employees who are dismissed have a duty at common law to mitigate their damages by finding comparable replacement employment as quickly as possible.
Can I Be “Unfired”?
Can an employer dismiss an employee, then change its mind, unilaterally retract the dismissal, and require that the employee continue to work? The answer to this question is currently unfolding before the world in real time.
Litigation Over Poor Mitigation: Court Reduces Notice Period
You might know that employees have a legal obligation to mitigate their damages when they are let go, which means they must make reasonable efforts to find new employment. However, what does “reasonable efforts” even mean?
Mitigation: Employee’s Obligations and Employer’s Rights
In this video update, Stuart talks about mitigation, or the legal obligation employee’s have to find new employment if they are let go, often as part of severance discussions.
Rudner Law Video Update: Termination Terminology
In this video update, Stuart clarifies some of the terms that are used in the world of employment law relating to dismissals.
Employee Refuses to Return to Work After Illegal Layoff – Court Finds Failure to Mitigate
Losing a job is nerve-wrecking for most people. Employees must be careful, however, because they have a duty to mitigate their damages by taking reasonable steps to find comparable employment. Otherwise, their entitlement to damages for wrongful dismissal may be substantially reduced.
Mitigation
If the employee is entitled to reasonable notice under the common law, then the employee has a duty to mitigate their damages, which means that they have a duty to take reasonable steps to find comparable employment.
Employers Can Be Responsible for Significant Mitigation Costs
There are certain circumstances in which the duty to mitigate does not arise. The first is where there is a termination clause in an employee’s employment agreement which does not expressly require an employee to mitigate their damages during the applicable period of notice. The second is with respect to an employee’s minimum statutory entitlements under employment standards legislation, including an employee’s entitlement to notice/Termination Pay and Severance Pay, which an employee is entitled to receive regardless of their mitigation efforts.
Potential Damages in Wrongful Dismissal
Usually when we talk about damages for wrongful dismissal, we look at the number of months, we try to calculate what a month is worth and we take into account salary, bonuses, commission, benefits, car allowance, pension, etc. And when we negotiate a settlement, we might throw in a token amount for the cost of finding new work, but that’s usually an afterthought.