“It’s really important for employers to be fair in the way that they treat employees, including upon termination, and one of the things that’s fundamental in treating an employee fairly is to adhere to the terms of the contract that you have with them.”
So says Natalia Tzemis, an employment lawyer at Harris and Company in Vancouver, after a British Columbia court ordered an employer pay a fired worker nearly $500,000 for 18 months’ pay in lieu of notice and $25,000 in punitive damages.
“[The employment contract] is there for the benefit of both the employee and the employer, and it’s not going to be viewed well by a court if the employer takes steps to unilaterally depart from the terms of its employment agreement,” says Tzemis.
