Employment Law 2

The common law and human rights both provide important protections for individuals, groups and society in general. Along with this benefit, however, both human rights and the common law have shortcomings with their protections which are limited or lost for many reasons, depending on the particular subject matter, the solutions required, statutory intervention, or the parties involved. The protection of rights and freedoms must remain aware of both human rights and the common law because the best outcome requires the considered use of both.

Common law is the law which has been developed in the courts. Where there is no explicit agreement between the employer and the employee that rule termination or notice, the court will imply into the parties employment contract an unwritten term for termination on “reasonable notice”. (footnote textbook) The contract term brings an obligation on the employer to provide reasonable notice of termination of employment or payment in lieu of notice in the event of a termination without cause. A failure to provide an employee with reasonable notice gives rise to an action for damages for a wrongful dismissal. The determination of reasonable notice varies from case-to-case, and is dependent upon a number of factors all referencing back to the Bardal case.

There is a rule of thumb with respect to reasonable notice which is a managerial or professional employee is entitled to a month of notice, or pay in lieu of notice for each year of service. At the lower range of service, awards of notice for managerial and professional employees are generally greater than one month per year of service, whereas at the higher range of service, the awards are often less than one month per year. When dealing with non-managerial or non-professional employees, the common law entitlement to notice may be in the range of two to three weeks per year of service, although it may vary from that range.(footnote textbook) Most employees believe that the use of