In Ho v Monk Office Supply, ( 2026 BCSC 1324 ) Justice Morley made these comments of how to determine the reasonable notice period for employees with very short employment, which was defined as employees with less than 1.5 years employment.
[31] Subsequent case law, consistent with the result in Saafeld, demonstrates that when the Court of Appeal said two to three months is “typical” for a short-term employee (less than 18 months), this should be interpreted as a “starting point”, which should only be departed from if there is a compelling reason, which will typically be an unusually lengthy job search, but may also be unusual commitments by the employer or unusual detrimental reliance by the employee in taking the job, whether characterized as leaving secure employment, inducement by the employer, or uprooting the employee’s community: Greenlees v. Starline Windows Ltd., 2018 BCSC 1457[Greenlees]; Younesi v. Kaz Minerals Projects B.V., 2021 BCSC 614 at para. 37 [Younesi].
The Court goes on to review a number of very short employment cases where the awards allow in excess of 2 to 3 months notice and the rationale behind that decision.
In this case Mr Ho was a 41 year old Corporate Controller with 2.5 months service. He was awarded 4 months notice. The reason for awarding him more than the starting point was as follows:
36] In my view, Mr. Ho’s five-month search, resulting in a lower-paying job, requires some adjustment from the two to three-month starting point set out in Saafeld, but does not justify a large adjustment.
[37] In my view, four months total — a one or two-month increase on the starting point of two to three months — is appropriate.
My Comments:
In my mediation practice , I see many employees with service of less than 18 months.
Predicting notice periods for short service employees has been been much more difficult than for longer service employees .
I believe that this case could be very useful in resolving notice periods for very short service cases. It at least gives us a logical process:
- We start with a notice period of between 2 and 3 months.
- Then we look at whether there are any ” compelling factors” which should extent that notice period.
This is similar to how some courts have viewed cases calling for a a notice period in excess of 24 months notice, where the onus shifts to the plaintiff to show what “extraordinary factors” should allow for a notice period in excess of 24 months.
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