Any severance experts out there? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any severance experts out there?

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nobbie48

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Friend of the wife.

Mid 50's, been with the same employer for 20-30 years.

Went on LTD about 1 1/2 years ago due to chronic arthritis / rheumatic type condition and LTD runs out in about 6 months.

Company is closing / outsourcing her department:

-She would likely not be able to do her work if she came back
-Her job won't be there if she could

Other employees are getting indications of reasonable settlements.

Not meaning to be cruel but no other company would risk hiring her due to health care burdens and most jobs of her type are now contract / no benefits. No work - no pay.

She's a good honest hard working lady with bad genes. She used to teach dancing but now can barely walk.

What can she expect from the company or government?
 
termination without cause, the severance is a weeks pay per year of service
unless she has an employment agreement that stipulates otherwise
that is Ontario Employment Standards minimum

edit, looks like it maxes out at 8 weeks
 
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For situations like these, I have had good luck with the free call that most lawyers provide. They know their stuff and can probably tell her in 5 minutes whether it is worth pursuing/what to expect. Before calling the lawyer, review your files and if you have an employment contract, see what it says regarding severance. Most contracts will say "in accordance with the employment standards act" which roughly means one week/year, if she redlined it or it doesn't say anything, she may have "in accordance with common law" which roughly means one month/year. I don't think these are straight multipliers (eg. I expect they cap at some point). She also has the added complications of LTD, I have no idea how that plays out.

I would suspect this will be ugly for her long-term. Even if they didn't close, her LTD was going to run out and she wouldn't have been able to return to work. They are closing a whole department, not just her position so she will have trouble winning a fight where she claims she was discriminated against based on her disability. I can't see them being forced to support her until 65. Is she eligible for ODSP (pays crap, but better than nothing)? Is the type of work she does conducive to short term positions (eg. can she work a month for accountemps when she is feeling better and not work when a flare up is bad?)
 
Companies do whatever da fuq they want to, legal or not.....call a lawyer and get their spin on it...similar thing happened to my wife a few years back...offered the standard weeks per year shiiite....lawyer got low six figures.....went with the hourly fee, not points.....think the fee was less than 4-5k all in....do not rely on the labour code.
if you can find a lawyer that has dealt with the company prior, that always helps.
good luck
 
Would depend on what the company does for severance. In the long term, even with a good one it probably won't be more than a year or so and then she's got to look into what she'll do after that runs out.
 
As JavaFan posted, the gov says one week for every year served, but most companies will make that 2 weeks just to make you go away.
if you want to push it, you might get one month for every year with continuation of health benefits, but that usually requires a lawyer so you have to weigh whether or not its worth the hassle.
 
Samfiru Tumarkin http://stlawyers.ca

My wife is a current client. TK4 has the goods for severance, but there may be some action related to the disability that I'm not knowledgeable about. ST has disability experience and the ability to closely integrate both sides of the equation.
 
I am no expert, just been through a few. First, if she hasn't been offered a package yet I don't see how any lawyer can help here. They wont know if its good or bad until they see it. Second, I am not clear if the entire company is closing or if they are just outsourcing her dept and letting that particular dept go (as in IT being outsourced but the company continues business as usual). If it is just her dept then she should get the same package as all others in the dept (based on years of service). They would be crazy to offer her something different due to her LTD. If the company as a whole is closing, that's a whole different ball game.

I don't see how she can get any advice until she gets her package and it is known exactly what happened.
 
nobbie48 said:
Friend of the wife.

Mid 50's, been with the same employer for 20-30 years.

Went on LTD about 1 1/2 years ago due to chronic arthritis / rheumatic type condition and LTD runs out in about 6 months.

Company is closing / outsourcing her department:

-She would likely not be able to do her work if she came back
-Her job won't be there if she could

Other employees are getting indications of reasonable settlements.

Not meaning to be cruel but no other company would risk hiring her due to health care burdens and most jobs of her type are now contract / no benefits. No work - no pay.

She's a good honest hard working lady with bad genes. She used to teach dancing but now can barely walk.

What can she expect from the company or government?
Click to expand...

When you say the company is closing do you mean the company is being closed by a parent company? Or do you mean they are going out of business? She should be entitled to the minimum of 1 week per year of service severance, plus whatever the damages are for losing her benefits because she can't work anywhere else (about another 1 week per year of service). She absolutely needs to meet with a lawyer BEFORE accepting any settlement. In every case the company will lowball without exception. They will only bargain when they get a letter from a lawyer. If they're stupid they'll go to court. If she cannot work she will end up on government disability, so the government will make the company pay just to save money. At 20-30 years you're looking at a big settlement if they don't have just cause for what they're doing.
 
They are closing her department. Been there done that. Wait till she sees what package they are offering. Then definitely see a lawyer. Might only net you a few grand more, but that's a few grand more.
 
Riceburner said:
They are closing her department. Been there done that. Wait till she sees what package they are offering. Then definitely see a lawyer. Might only net you a few grand more, but that's a few grand more.
Click to expand...

Of which the lawyer takes a few grand. You have to figure out if its worth the hassle. If you go with a lawyer you get NOTHING until the case is settled. Some people cant afford to wait the amount of time it takes to go to court for a settlement without any other means of income. You get screwed both ways because the company knows that and so do the lawyers.

And LTD will stop the moment she is let go as the company will let the insurance company know that date, unless it is part of the termination package, which will stop until it is signed off.
 
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The company isn't folding, just outsourcing the department. The general indications are they are going to offer decent packages but the LTD has some potential of being a snag. LTD is often paid by an insurance company rather than the employer so another avenue of doubt.

She would be in trouble even if the department wasn't closing. She wouldn't be able to go back to work due to her illness so even if she got six figures she would be dependent on savings in a few years. Also a lump sum severance gets hit hard by rev Can.
 
Just to add my 2 cents on severance.

They are closing the department around me (my team is part of a different department altogether luckily) ... but 150 people got there walking papers a few months ago. Essentially they gave them all until October 31st to either find a new job in the company or if they aren't successful they will get 2 weeks per year of service maxing out at 48 weeks of pay (they will keep there benefits in that 48 week window) ...
 
FLSTC said:
Samfiru Tumarkin http://stlawyers.ca

My wife is a current client. TK4 has the goods for severance, but there may be some action related to the disability that I'm not knowledgeable about. ST has disability experience and the ability to closely integrate both sides of the equation.
Click to expand...

OP.. They have a questions page... with answers. Ask your questions there.
 
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