Severance Law for Canadian HR Professionals
From The HR Hub by WRKdefined Podcast Network
May 22, 2026 · 27 min
About this episode
Employment lawyer Brady Farmer discusses the complexities of severance law in Canada, including statutory minimums and common law reasonable notice.
Calculating severance pay in Canada requires understanding the difference between statutory minimums and common law reasonable notice. In this episode, employment lawyer Brady Farmer explains how age, position, and length of service determine what an employee is truly owed. Key Takeaways: - The difference between the "floor" of statutory law and the "ceiling" of common law. - Why the "one month per year" rule is actually a myth. - How the duty to mitigate can lower an employer's total payout. - The stark contrast between Canadian notice requirements and US "at-will" employment. 00:00 Defining statutory vs common law severance 02:13 How common law fills legislative gaps 03:15 Debunking the one month per year myth 03:56 Four factors for determining notice periods 05:54 Understanding the employee duty to mitigate 08:23 Strategies to encourage employee mitigation 11:13 Are termination clauses actually enforceable? 17:42 Why releases require extra consideration 19:04 Anatomy of a proper termination letter 23:41 Canada vs US employment law differences **Find Brady Farmer** Website: https://www.matthewsdinsdale.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brady-farmer- **Find Andrea…
People in this episode
Host: Andrea Adams
Guest: Brady Farmer
Topics covered
- severance law
- Canadian employment law
- statutory minimums
- common law reasonable notice
- employee duty to mitigate
- termination clauses
Keywords
- severance pay
- employment law
- Canada
- common law
- statutory law
- termination
- employee rights
- mitigation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: WRKdefined Podcast Network, Matthews Dinsdale, The HR Hub
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