Updated Employer Obligations for Mass Terminations

/in /by

Ontario strengthened their employer obligations for mass terminations under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the “ESA”). In addition to existing requirements relating to mass terminations, employers must provide a new Employer Ontario Career Support information sheet to employees terminated as part of a mass termination.

A mass termination is deemed to have occurred where an employer terminates 50 or more employees at a business location within a four-week period; triggering specified notice requirements and reporting obligations to the Ministry of Labour.

Mass termination provisions now require employers to provide affected employees with the following on the first day of notice:

  • Individual notice of termination, or indefinite layoff compliant with the ESA;
  • A copy of the complete Form 1 (Notice of Termination of Employment) that was delivered to the Director of Employment Standards; and
  • The most recent version of the Employment Ontario Career Supports information sheet.

The new information sheet will provide the employee with various services available through Employment Ontario, including: job matching referrals, financial assistance for training, transportation, and dependent care, information on local jobs, salaries, and training requirements, and access to apprenticeship opportunities.

Ontario Court of Appeal Upholds Denial of Claim Deemed Untimely

In Brady v. Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, 2025 ONCA 722, the Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld the lower court decision dismissing a claim on the basis that it was filed after the applicable limitation period had expired. The Court of Appeal’s decision reinforced Ontario’s strict timelines under the Limitations Act, 2002.

The case involved an employee who began a temporary assignment as an acting manager in October 2018. The acting position was not a bargaining unit position. On April 30, 2020, the employer advised the employee that she would be terminated as acting manager and returned to her position in the bargaining unit.

Around May of 2020, the employee learned that original position within the bargaining unit was not available and she would instead be placed her in a frontline clinical social work position. The employee immediately commenced medical leave, allegedly due to the trauma of reassignment to a more junior position.

On October 27, 2022 — more than two years after her reassignment and subsequent medical leave — the employee commenced a wrongful dismissal claim.

The claim was initially heard by a Superior Court judge, who ruled that the Court lacked jurisdiction over the claim as it had exceeded the two-year limitation period and was therefore statute-barred.

On appeal, the employee challenged the conclusions of the Superior Court. The employee argued that the limitation period should be calculated starting from when her claim was discoverable on April 30, 2020.  Calculating two years from April 30, 2020, with an additional 183-day pandemic suspension of limitation periods, would allow her to commence her claim until October 30, 2022.

The Court of Appeal rejected that reasoning, concluding that the claim became discoverable after the pandemic suspension ended on September 14, 2020. The employee’s October 2022 filing was too late. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and directed the appellant to pay the respondent’s costs in the amount of $25,000.

This recent decision reinforces that COVID-19 grace periods have limits.  The Court of Appeal made it clear that limitation periods are not ‘COVID-optional’ and do not extend claims indefinitely.