Are an employer’s financial circumstances a relevant consideration in determining the period of reasonable notice to which a wrongfully dismissed employee is entitled?
That was the issue that the Court of Appeal for Ontario had to answer in the case of Michela v. St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic School, 2015 ONCA 801.
In answering the question “no”, the court could not have been any more succinct or clear: “An employer’s financial circumstances may well be the reason for terminating a contract of employment – the event that gives rise to the employee’s right to reasonable notice. But an employer’s financial circumstances are not relevant to the determination of reasonable notice in a particular case: they justify neither a reduction in the notice period in bad times nor an increase when times are good.”
