Group termination (mass termination)

Under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) s.58(1), an employer must give notice of termination in the prescribed manner and for the prescribed period if it terminates the employment of the number of employees the section sets at its establishment in the same four-week period. Ontario’s guide says special rules for the amount and delivery of notice apply. Whether a sale itself triggers the rule is covered in does a business sale trigger mass termination notice requirements.

The federal version

Division IX of Part III of the Canada Labour Code is headed Group Termination of Employment. Under s.212(1), an employer that terminates the employment of a group of employees of the size the section or the regulations set within a particular industrial establishment, simultaneously or within any period not exceeding four weeks, must give the Head written notice of its intention, in addition to any notice required under s.230. Other provinces run their own regimes, and this entry does not describe them.

• Count planned layoffs by the seller before closing and by the buyer after it, at each location
• Ask whether any employee on temporary layoff may become a termination
• Confirm which statute governs and what its notice requires