Charity Law Bulletin No. 376, January 27, 2016
Financial difficulties are a common reason for terminating employees, whether the employer is a not-for-profit or a for-profit business. In Michela v St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic School, a recent decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal, the Court clarified that where an employer is in difficult economic circumstances, those circumstances “do not justify a reduction of the notice period to which an employee is otherwise entitled.” This Charity & NFP Bulletin will review the Michela decision and comment on how charities and not-for-profits may reduce their exposure to liability so that, should financial difficulty arise, such as those that have been reported in the press recently concerning Goodwill Industries in Toronto and other Ontario locations, they will not be faced with unexpected and onerous financial burdens in terminating employees.
To read more, please see Charity & NFP Bulletin No. 376.