06/02/2016 Just got fired?
Your boss, and possibly an HR rep have just handed you a letter of termination that you didn’t see coming, no reasons given; they have offered you a severance package, and said you have only 2 days, or 1 week, or some other very short time period in which to accept it, or else it’s off the table. What to do??
Unfortunately, this is a frequent event. You can usually assume that the employer has low-balled you on the severance offer, relying on the law of percentages. In other words, at least 75% of employees who are fired do not even bother to call a lawyer for advice regarding the severance proposed, thinking that this is all they’ll ever get, and they cannot afford a lawyer, since they just got fired. Employers know this, and bank on it.
From the 25% of fired employees that call a lawyer, perhaps half of them, will actually retain that lawyer to go after the employer for a better deal. When the better deal doesn’t come, a small percentage of those persons bring a claim against the employer for wrongful dismissal.
Graeme was called to the Bar of Ontario (Law Society of Upper Canada) in 1989, and has been practising law in Ottawa for over 25 years, having established a highly respected reputation with his clients, and his peers, as a tenacious advocate both in and outside of the courtroom. This is borne out by…
