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The Law of Work
Law of Work Archive

CAW Rally Today for Improved Severance Pay Protections

by David Doorey March 24, 2009
written by David Doorey March 24, 2009

 I have noted before that employees usually get screwed out of their severance pay when their employer goes bankrupt, because employees are ranked lower down the pecking order of creditors than banks and other secured creditors.  This is especially significant during a recesssion, since large numbers of employers will likely go belly up. 
The CAW is holding a rally at Queens Park today to pressure the Liberals to make changes to the provincial laws governing severance pay.  Among the changes they want are:

  • A new government fund that would guarantee the payment of severance pay up to $10,000 per person when employers won’t or can’t pay.  The NDP had a program like this in the early 1990s (another bad economic period) called the Employee Wage Protection Program, but it was repealed by the Conservatives.  The federal government has a plan called the Wage Earner Protection Program, which allows employees to claim up to $3,254 for unpaid amounts (including severance pay).

 

  • An end to the minimum 5 year  qualification period for entitlement to severance pay and new look at the other eligibility requirements that require an employer to have an annual payroll of $2.5 million or to have terminated 50 employees or more in a 6 month period.  Keep in mind that the requirement to pay severance only applies to employers who meet one of these two strict requirements.  For everyone else, there is no entitlement to severance pay at all, and many, many, employees in Ontario work for small employers who would never be required to pay severance pay under current restrictions.

 

  • An end to practice of suspending employment insurance benefits until severance payments have been used up (this would require a change to the Federal employment insurance legislation)

The full CAW submission is available here.  Do you think that state should fund severance pay when employers won’t pay?   If you are interested in this issue, and in seeing a labour protest in action, head on down to Queens Park today at noon.

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David Doorey

Professor Doorey is an Associate Professor of Work Law and Industrial Relations at York University. He is Academic Director of Osgoode Hall Law School’s executive LLM Program in Labour and Employment Law and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. Professor Doorey is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LL.B., Ph.D), London School of Economics (LLM Labour Law), and the University of Toronto (B.A., M.I.R.).

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Law Prof. Talking #labor & #employment #law #Gig to the masses. Alpaca ❤️ @YorkUniversity @OsgoodeNews @LSELaw @LWPHarvard @Jacobin @OnLaborBlog https://t.co/5V9r8VPHsh

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jamesbrad263Brad James@jamesbrad263·
6h

@TheLawofWork @OFLabour Thanks for giving me space on your blog last December to bloviate and whine about this broad topic: https://lawofwork.ca/james_whysoquiet/

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TheLawofWorkDavid J. Doorey🇨🇦@TheLawofWork·
7h

It is rather striking that the @OFLabour is not leading a charge for improved access to collective bargaining.

Emphasizing improved labor standards over collective bargaining rights.

Brad James@jamesbrad263

Private sector union membership is slipping. Ways to address that could include better rights for employees to form unions (as BC has done) or building a broader-based bargaining system for franchise workers. But those aren't in this list of goals from Ontario's union federation. https://twitter.com/OFLabour/status/1559242326391791616

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greenhousenytSteven Greenhouse@greenhousenyt·
21h

Breaking- NLRB says workers at Amazon warehouse in Albany NY area file petition for union election for 400 workers to join Amazon Labor Union

Reply on Twitter 1559661375890268163Retweet on Twitter 1559661375890268163175Like on Twitter 1559661375890268163907Twitter 1559661375890268163
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