Employee Has Right to Change Mind about Resignation: ONCA

Can an employee change her mind about resignation, if the impetus for such voluntary resignation ceases to be an issue, and the employee has not yet left employment?

In the third in a series of decisions concerning “working resignation”, English v. Manulife Financial Corporation, 2019 ONCA 612 , the Court of Appeal of Ontario said yes.

Changing One’s Mind about Retirement

May an employee who has resigned her position of employment by way of a notice of retirement later rescind her written notice of retirement? If so, under what conditions may she do so?

Those were the questions answered by the Honourable Justice Mark L. Edwards of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in English v. Manulife Financial Corporation, 2018 ONSC 5135 (CanLII)

Resignation Letters Not Always Determinative

“You can’t fire me, I quit!”  is a common movie refrain and one that many employees have probably repeated – at least in their own heads.  But what about the reverse?  Can one claim that he has not quit, but rather was fired – even if he has tendered a letter of resignation?

That question was at the heart of the recent decision of the British Columbia Supreme Court case in Chan v. Dencan Restaurants Inc., 2011 BCSC 1439.