SUPERIOR COURT ADDS NEW RULES FOR MEASURING REASONABLE NOTICE IN QUEBEC – NEW RULES OR A FLASH IN THE PAN
By Theodore Goloff
Are i) the economic climate that prevails; and/or ii) the employer’s particular economic circumstances relevant to determining “reasonable notice” in Quebec? On the one hand, the criteria that supposedly make up the matrix of factors that determine the “reasonability” of common-law notice (styled notice in accordance with Arts. 2091-2092 C.C.Q. in Quebec) seem decidedly skewed towards considerations that relate to the employee being let go, such as, inter alia, the time it might take the employee to find alternate employment. Indeed, the whole point of “notice” or “pay in lieu thereof”, as noted in the case law, is to provide a cushion to the employee to help him/her to adjust to changed circumstances when the employer exercises its right to terminate employment, “at will” and without “serious reason”.
