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Posted on March 1st 2009 in Employment Law

Wrongful Dismissal Damages Revisited

Over the past several months, the Supreme Court of Canada has clarified and redefined some important aspects of the law of damages in the context of wrongful dismissal.

In the first case, they considered the issue of how damages should be awarded when an employer behaves with bad faith when terminating an employee. Since the 1997 landmark case of Wallace v. United Grain Growers, courts have extended the notice period an employee would otherwise be entitled to in such cases. In Damages for Bad Faith Dismissals we explain the high court’s revised position.

In the second decision, the court ruled on the extent of an employee’s obligation to mitigate his/her damages in a wrongful dismissal case. Specifically it considered whether an employee had to accept an employer’s offer to return to the job from which he/she was fired. In How Far Must an Employee go to Mitigate? we look at when and why an employee must consider accepting such an offer.