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Normally the amount of severance pay is calculated based on the most recent past several weeks (8 in this example). What if there is an upcoming major change to the employees schedule right around the time of him being terminated without cause?

For example, Bob has worked for a company 2 days per week for the past 6 months. He recently accepted a full time position with the company (and as a result, quits his other part time job). Shortly after switching to full time, he is terminated without cause. Would Bob be entitled to severance just based on the 2 days a week or could it be argued that the severance should be based on the full time hours? Does having quit his other job to work full time have any bearing?

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    Your title says Bob was terminated before the change in scheduling but the text of your question says it happened after. Are you interested in one of these cases, or both?
    – Michael Seifert
    Jun 20 at 20:57
  • @MichaelSeifert right after the change, though I think it can be a bit ambiguous. For example if Bob was working 1 day a week, what if he gets terminated right after the first day of the first week where he was going to be working 5 days a week?
    – StumpTheCheff2
    Jun 20 at 21:37

2 Answers 2

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Bob is entitled to severance based on his current duties

Redundancy (severance) pay is not applicable to certain employees and certain businesses.

For employees and businesses where it is payable, the specific award or registered agreement will detail how it is calculated. If an employee is not covered by one or the other than the National Employment Standard applies.

How many weeks an employee is entitled to depends on their period of continuous service and can be quite a complicated calculation. However, at the end of it, they will be entitled to a specific number of weeks of pay.

Those weeks are for the hours they are presently contracted for irrespective of it this has recently changed.

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  • Any idea about Canada?
    – StumpTheCheff2
    Jun 21 at 9:50
  • @StumpTheCheff2 Yes. Nice place. Very cold in winter.
    – Dale M ♦
    Jun 21 at 12:12
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The amount the employer is liable to pay becomes payable on termination of the employment and is calculated by

(a)totalling all the employee's weekly wages, at the regular wage, during the last 8 weeks in which the employee worked normal or average hours of work,

(b)dividing the total by 8, and

(c)multiplying the result by the number of weeks' wages the employer is liable to pay.

It's the average of the past 8 weeks. For example, if Bob was working 1 day a week then switched to 5 and was terminated after that week, it would work out to the equivalent of working 12/8 = 1.5 days per week.

The fact that Bob quit another position for this does not affect severance. It could potentially lead to a separate case if the company was dishonest though.

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