Wrongful Dismissal in Ontario:
Know Your Rights as an Employee
You Were Let Go. Now What?
Losing a job is one of the most difficult experiences a person can face. The days that follow are often filled with confusion, uncertainty, financial pressure, and unanswered questions, chief among them: was this a wrongful dismissal, and what are you actually owed?
Those questions deserve honest answers. And the answers are rarely as simple as what appears in the termination letter sitting in front of you.
At Bune Law, every client works directly with Sezar Bune, a Toronto wrongful dismissal lawyer who has spent his career working both sides of the file, representing employees pursuing claims and employers defending them, at a prominent Ontario employment law firms before founding Bune Law. Called to the Ontario Bar with 12+ years of employment law practice, that experience is not incidental to how he works.
It means Sezar understands not just what you may be entitled to. He understands how employers and their legal teams build their defence, what they are counting on you not to know, and how to use that against them on your behalf.
That is the foundation every client at Bune Law benefits from, from the first conversation to the final resolution.
Framework One
Employment Standards Act, 2000
The ESA sets minimum notice and severance entitlements in Ontario. Most employees receive an offer based on this floor. It is often the starting point, not the final word.
Framework Two
Ontario Common Law
Ontario courts regularly award notice well beyond the ESA minimums. How far beyond depends on the facts of your employment, and those facts are worth examining carefully.
What Is Wrongful Dismissal in Ontario?
Definition
Wrongful dismissal occurs when an employee is terminated without cause and without receiving the reasonable notice, or pay in lieu, required under Ontario law.
Being terminated does not automatically mean the dismissal was wrongful or unlawful. What it does mean is that how you were let go, what you were offered, and what your employment relationship looked like all deserve a careful review. Many terminations that appear entirely routine involve issues that entitle employees to considerably more than what the employer initially offered.
In Ontario, most employees are entitled to reasonable notice of termination, or pay in lieu of that notice. That entitlement is not a fixed number. It is assessed based on the specific facts of the employment relationship: age, length of service, the nature and seniority of the role, the availability of comparable employment, and the terms of any employment contract. Ontario courts have recognized over one hundred factors that may be relevant to that assessment. The figure in your termination letter reflects what your employer decided to offer. It is not necessarily what you are entitled to receive.
Your entitlements exist under two separate frameworks: the Employment Standards Act, 2000, which sets the legal minimums, and Ontario common law, which frequently awards employees considerably more.
Framework One
Employment Standards Act, 2000
The ESA sets minimum notice and severance entitlements in Ontario. Most employees receive an offer based on this floor. It is often the starting point, not the final word.
Framework Two
Ontario Common Law
Ontario courts regularly award notice well beyond the ESA minimums. How far beyond depends on the facts of your employment, and those facts are worth examining carefully.
What Does Wrongful Dismissal Look Like?
Most employees walk out of a termination meeting without realizing they may have been wrongfully dismissed. By that point, the employer has often spent weeks preparing, usually with HR and legal guidance. The employee typically has no warning. That imbalance is where many wrongful dismissal issues begin.
In our experience handling employment matters, initial severance offers are often based on minimum standards, while full entitlements can be significantly higher depending on the circumstances. What you do next matters: once you sign the severance package and legal release, you may give up your legal right to pursue additional compensation. Speaking with an Ontario employment lawyer before signing can make a significant difference in your case.
You Were Handed a Letter and Told You Had a Few Days to Sign
The offer, the deadline, and the language in that letter are all deliberate. Employers do not arrive at termination meetings unprepared. The severance figure is not standard, the deadline is not standard, and the impression that both are fixed is not standard either. It is a position, and most severance packages can often be negotiated.
"Your Position Was Eliminated." But Was It Really?
"We are restructuring." "Your role has become redundant." These are among the most common reasons employees report being given, and among the most frequently misapplied. The role disappears from the organizational chart or the title changes, and yet the work continues. What a role is called in a termination letter matters far less than what happened to the work after you left.
The Severance Offer Does Not Reflect What You May Be Owed
Most employees receive a package based on the Employment Standards Act minimums. What Ontario common law may entitle you to is a separate question, and the gap between the two is rarely accidental. Employers know the difference. Their legal teams are often counting on the possibility that you do not.
You Were Never Told the Full Picture
A termination meeting that lasted minutes. A package presented as final. The clear impression that what you were handed was everything you were owed. In most of those cases, it was not. The Employment Standards Act sets the floor of what an employer must provide. It is not the ceiling of what you may be entitled to pursue.
Your Termination Followed a Medical Leave or Workplace Harassment Complaint
A termination that follows a medical leave, a disability disclosure, or a complaint of harassment raises questions that deserve careful review. The timing alone is not determinative. But it is never irrelevant, and it is always worth understanding your legal rights and options before taking any steps to navigate a stressful workplace issue.
The Termination Clause in Your Contract May Not Hold
Clauses that appear to cap severance entitlements are among the most contested provisions in Ontario employment law. Whether a clause limits what you can pursue depends on how it was drafted, when it was signed, and whether it meets the requirements Ontario law imposes. While most employers will claim their termination clauses are valid and enforceable, that is not always the case. In fact, many termination clauses cannot withstand legal scrutiny when challenged in wrongful dismissal claims.
Wrongful Dismissal vs. Constructive Dismissal: What Is the Difference?
These two terms come up often in Ontario employment law, and the distinction matters, particularly if you are uncertain which situation applies to you.
You Were Terminated Without Reasonable Notice
In Ontario, when an employer ends your employment without cause, they must provide either reasonable notice of termination or payment in lieu of notice.
Reasonable notice gives you advance warning of your last working day. Alternatively, pay in lieu of notice is financial compensation provided instead of notice, which allows your employment to end immediately. This is often called a severance package.
You Were Forced Out Without a Formal Termination
Constructive dismissal occurs when an employer has not formally terminated the employee, but has made such significant and unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of employment that continuing in the role becomes untenable, effectively forcing the employee to resign. In other words, there is no termination letter or formal separation agreement, but the employer's conduct in fundamentally changing the job itself becomes the dismissal.
Both situations support a legal claim under Ontario employment law. Both are also subject to limitation periods, and employees who seek legal advice early before taking steps that affected their options are often better positioned to pursue their legal rights and entitlements.
Learn more about Constructive Dismissal in OntarioWhy Clients Choose Bune Law
Bune Law was founded to support both employees and employers in navigating complex workplace issues, including terminations and wrongful dismissal claims. Every case is personally handled by our experienced Toronto employment lawyer, who has spent years representing both sides of employment matters.
Our hands-on experience allows us to provide practical, strategic advice tailored to your situation, helping you understand your rights, assess your options, and achieve the best possible outcome.
Sezar Bune is a member of the Law Society of Ontario. Bune Law serves clients across Toronto and throughout Ontario.
One Employment Lawyer. Entirely On Your Side, Start to Finish.
Sezar built Bune Law on a foundation most employment lawyers don't have: years spent working both sides of the file before founding his own firm. That background informs every file he handles, every assessment he gives, and every strategy he brings on your behalf.
You Get a Straight Answer, Not the One You Want to Hear.
When you have just lost your job, the last thing you need is a lawyer who tells you what you want to hear. Every client receives a direct, honest assessment of where they stand: options laid out clearly, in plain language, without sugarcoating, and without promises that cannot honestly be made. If the offer is fair, you will hear that. If you may be owed more, you will hear that too.
You Speak With Sezar, From the First Call to the Last.
When you contact Bune Law, you speak with Sezar directly. Not a junior associate, not a paralegal, not an intake coordinator who passes your file down the line. Every client receives the same standard of attention and advocacy, regardless of the size or complexity of their matter.
The Goal Is Simple: Getting You What You Are Actually Owed.
Whether the goal is a meaningfully improved severance package or pursuing a formal wrongful dismissal claim, Bune Law provides the kind of representation that changes what employees walk away with, not just what they were initially offered.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not every dismissal is wrongful. But many that appear routine are not. The termination letter looks professional. The severance package is presented as fair. The process feels final. In the wrongful dismissal files we handle at Bune Law, what employees were told and what Ontario law may require are often two different things.
The timing of a termination, the language in the employment contract, the conduct leading up to it, and the severance offered can all affect what an employee may be entitled to pursue. If you were terminated without cause and are uncertain whether what you received was fair, that question deserves a proper legal review, not an assumption.
Not always, and in many cases, no. What employers describe as standard typically reflects the ESA minimum, which is the legal floor, not the ceiling of what an employee may be entitled to pursue. Across the severance packages we review at Bune Law, Ontario common law entitlements frequently exceed those minimums, sometimes by a considerable margin, based on the specific facts of the employment relationship.
Termination clauses that purport to limit severance are not always enforceable either. The only reliable way to know whether an offer reflects your full entitlements is to have it assessed by an employment lawyer before you sign anything.
What we see at Bune Law is that employees who signed quickly, under time pressure and without legal advice, are the ones most likely to discover they left considerable entitlements behind. It depends on the specific circumstances of the signing, but in some situations options may still exist even after a release has been executed.
If you have not yet signed, getting a proper legal review is the most important step you can take right now. If you have already signed, the situation may still warrant a closer look.
Most wrongful dismissal matters in Ontario are resolved through negotiation, without ever proceeding to litigation. In our experience, the matters that resolve most favourably are those where the employee obtained legal advice early: before responding to their employer, before signing anything, and before taking steps that affected their position.
Employers and their legal teams respond differently when they know an employee has retained counsel. That shift in dynamic is something we see consistently, and it makes a measurable difference in what can be achieved.
Yes, but it is one factor among many. Ontario courts consider age, length of service, the nature and seniority of the role, the availability of comparable employment, the terms of any employment contract, and several others.
Employees who assume their entitlements are limited because of a short tenure, or fixed because of a long one, are frequently surprised by what a full legal review reveals. Length of service matters. So does everything else about the employment relationship.
Speak Directly With a Toronto Wrongful Dismissal Lawyer
If you were wrongfully dismissed and are uncertain whether the severance you received reflects what Ontario law may require, the most important step you can take right now is to get honest, practical advice before you sign anything.
One conversation with Sezar Bune will tell you exactly where you stand.
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Speak directly with Sezar Bune. No junior associates. No handoffs.