Employer Can’t Require Employee to Sign Release In Order to Receive Contractual Severance:

In Tong v Synerion North America ( 2017 CanLII 145091) Prattas D.J. had a situation where the employment contract called for 6 weeks pay for this 3 year employee but because the employee refused to sign a release, the employer only paid 3 weeks, contrary to its own contract.

The judge had found that the contract was illegal  as it violated the ESA ( no termination pay for under 1 year service and no benefits ) so reasonable notice was the only option but still the judge mentioned three times in the judgement this action by the employer as one of the grounds to find that 6 months was proper notice.

Quere: Does this mean that anytime an employer does not pay out what their own contract requires that they later on cannot seek to limit  their liability  to the contract? If the contract provides for only the ESA amount on termination but the employer pays zero because they allege cause but fail, does this mean that the employee gets reasonable notice ?