Fiona Martyn, an employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, an employment and labour legislation agency in Toronto, recommends taking your severance package deal to a lawyer for evaluation earlier than signing something. Although you signed an employment contract upon being employed, generally the termination clauses are unenforceable, because the legislation might have modified throughout your tenure. “What [an employment lawyer] can do is enable you negotiate a greater severance package deal which displays components like your age, size of service and place. Severance packages assist to bridge the [financial] hole till you discover a new job,” she says.

That’s precisely what Michael did (final title withheld for privateness causes). Michael, who lives in Toronto, misplaced his job at a big tech firm in 2019. “I noticed the writing on the wall from a mile away,” he says. “I began getting my geese in a row.” He was disillusioned along with his settlement supply—the corporate let him go solely weeks earlier than his inventory choices would have vested, so his complete compensation package deal was a lot decrease than he anticipated. 

Michael instantly went to a lawyer. “By getting a powerful letter from [my lawyer], I used to be in a position to get an additional month of severance,” he says. For the one-hour assembly and the letter, he paid $500, which was solely a small proportion of the extra severance pay he subsequently obtained.

The way to discover an employment lawyer in Canada

You may contact the regulatory group in your province or territory—just like the Regulation Society of Ontario or the Regulation Society of British Columbia—for a referral to a professional employment lawyer. These organizations oversee the follow of legislation and set up requirements of competence for legal professionals in every province and territory.   

When to use for unemployment insurance coverage

What’s EI? EI used to discuss with “unemployment insurance coverage,” however the appropriate time period is now “employment insurance coverage.” EI provides income to Canadians who’ve misplaced their jobs by means of “no fault of their very own” for as much as 45 weeks, or simply over 10 months. The utmost quantity you possibly can obtain is 55% of your wage, as much as $650 every week. 

EI begins when you’re not receiving severance pay out of your employer. To be eligible, you need to be out of labor and receiving no pay for a minimum of seven consecutive days, and you need to have been terminated with out trigger. You need to apply for EI as quickly as you get laid off, no matter whether or not your employer supplied a severance package deal, Martyn says. You may apply on the identical day you get laid off—even when you don’t but have the required paperwork. Should you do have severance, merely inform Service Canada, which administers the EI program, and it’ll put your EI funds on maintain till that interval ends. And when you discover one other job earlier than then, you gained’t want EI.

3 methods to arrange for a doable job loss in Canada

Kurt Rosentreter, a senior monetary advisor at Manulife, provides these tricks to reduce the potential influence of a brief job loss. 

1. All the time keep marketable

To arrange for doable job loss, you’ll need to keep marketable—this may also help you discover one other job rapidly, says Rosentrer. And one of the simplest ways to do this is to refresh your LinkedIn profile, get new certificates in your subject and maintain networking. Don’t be complacent about your abilities.