Unlock the Power of Electronic Signature Legality for Acknowledgement of Resignation in Canada

How to eSign a document: electronic signature legality for Acknowledgement of Resignation in Canada

[Music] hey welcome to employment our in 30 John schools in Lee or Sam fury we talk about employment rights we talk about severance pay and everything under that band of the place where you spend thousands of hours of your life every week so it's important stuff to know do you mean to depress you but it's it's gonna be a lightning show and in lightning show for sure severance pay calculator that's a cool tool and before we get to that later on in the show in just a few minutes you can check it out on your own severance pay calculator com2 reach out one eight five five eight two one fifty nine hundred but we always start the show with via the week that was and this one is a is a contract beauty we talked about this before it really is and it falls into the category of things may not always be as they seem and this happens by the way often when it comes to employment law and workplace rights things are not always as they seem you may sometimes think you don't have rights when you do you may sometimes think that there's nothing you could do about a problem when in fact you can you may think that the company is doing is right when it's not so there's a lot of misconceptions like that when it comes to your rights workplace rights employment law that's what the show is all about to to demystify that to tell you how actually things work what the law says so if you're ever wondering about should something be this way don't wander anymore call us email us you'll give you will give you that information throughout the show but the week that was getting back on track in terms of something that came across my desk as you said it has to do with the contract well let me be very specific this particular lady I spoke with had worked in one of the major hospitals in the city for some eight years just over eight years except every three months or so John she signed a new contract so every three months it's a contract next three months another contract and round and round we go well I'm a lawyer not a mathematician so don't really know how many contracts so it's a lot of contracts okay that's many contracts it's a plethora of contracts I would say but beyond that that's all Shinya well very recently when this latest contract ended her employer the hospital said we're not renewing it anymore so you're gonna be leaving us where we should all the best handshake off you go and she called me and she wanted to know is that right well no it's not and not so fast things are not always as they she thought she was an employee on a contract what she isn't when you sign a contract that keeps getting renewed again and again and again that contract becomes meaningless you now become a regular indefinite full-time employee doesn't matter what you sign usually once you've signed a few of these contracts they say stop meaning anything why because you're not expecting to be let go anymore you're simply expecting to continue working yeah I signed a contract maybe after the first contract I wasn't sure but after the second third fourth fifth 10th yeah I'm not expecting to be let go so I'm a regular employee that means now that she's going to be let go she is old severance like a regular employee and for her it could be easily about ten months of pay that she's out and I wanted to bring this up today because this is a common situation individuals may have signed a number of contracts and they think well I'm only working till the end of the contract well no if you signed a number of them consecutively they may be meaningless and now if you don't have another contract if the cuy if the employer decides to let you go they may owe you full severance I see this John happening all the time what's the what's the threshold as far as contracts two three four doesn't have a dozen usually once you get past three three or beyond the contracts become meaningless so the first two contracts yes legitimate once we get to 3 and then 4 5 6 etc yeah they're meaningless you're a regular employee I'm sure I'm talking to people right now that are watching us that are either in the situation now or have been in that situation where they just signed a bunch of consecutive contracts they're meaningless so if the company eventually decides to let you go you're owed your full sevenths I guess it would really make sense because if that was the case I employ or could just keep putting somebody on contracts signing and signing for 30 years and at the end of a long career we don't know you know yeah so it would be very simple everyone would do that I would just have people on a one-month contract renew sign a piece of paper every benefits no there's nothing easy and then 30 years from now as you've said I know I'm just not gonna renew it forget about the two-year severance I have to pay you I don't have to pay you anything because you're on contract well guess what the law smarter than that I'm smarter than that it doesn't work that way one eight five five eight two one 5900 employment our TVA that is the website to go to find out more things about this show shows and a radio show as well which has been on the on the gopher Bowl at seven plus years now we take phone calls a ton of them on the show we play them back on this show the audio and we comment on the first call of the day is coming up right now what's the same company for almost seven years the father's odd partners son didn't want me around so I took a layoff from him when I suddenly she'd severance package I took one week per year service the father wants me to continue working for him on a part-time basis I was told I have to pay the severance back if I go back to work for the company that's what the lady that does our bookkeeping in their accounting and stuff said Wow yeah it's an interesting situation so here's how this works so he's let go and no the company says no no we want you to come back okay well keep in mind he doesn't have to go back and the company doesn't have the obligation to take him back they don't have to so they can say we'll do it only if you pay us back the severance he doesn't have to accept it but they don't have to allow him to come back if he agrees they can do that he can pay back the servants he doesn't have to pay it back but they don't have to take him back okay that's simple the real interesting issue here is much bigger than that so he says in his call to us that after seven years he was laid off took seven weeks of pay Reaper a week per year the kind of the standard well guess what he is owed much much more than that and most people in that situation when they get this week per year there are a heck of a lot more so the real issue is not about whether he pays it back the real issue that he needs to pursue his full severance he's owed much much more money how much well let's apply that or let's input that into the severance pay calculator dot-com website and see how much he's actually owed so you can see on the screen right now he's been that for seven years of labor I picked an age let's say 61 years old and he was given seven weeks pay was you see on the screen someone in his situation is owed six to eight months of pay depending on what his income is that could be twenty thirty thousand dollars or more easy so forget about whether I'm gonna pay back my seven weeks pay no no you're not gonna pay it back you're gonna get a lot more than that that's why the severance pay calculator or calm website is so easy we took us way a few seconds now to do that it'll take you just as long to use it yourself so the real issue is not paying it back the real issue is how much you're owed and by the way Joe and I get often times that cause when people are asking me about the wrong thing they're asking me about the record of employment they're asking me about a reference letter all right let me go when all this time they could be over to another fifty thousand dollars in severance that's the real real issue that's why you go to severance pay calculator comp no he could still foolishly for go that extra severance to go back to job but so he can ultimately decide what he wants to do does he want to forego that and go back and they're offering him his job in different terms part-time probably doesn't make sense he can if I'm advising him I'm telling him forget that get your full severance and move on to a different job again employment our t v-- CA is a place to find the radio show call number two for this shows coming up right now i put a harassment claim in against an employee and it was not investigated I believe due to the relationship they have with the top person of the company I've recently gone to HR they advised that I contact the ministry of labor and in fact that they had not investigated it why the Ministry of Labor is now involved but their HR manager mentioned that this could be instant of constructive dismissal for me as in this company I will not be able to move laterally or up that's that's a weird situation it is very weird I remember that call on our radio show and what I was thinking then it's exactly what I'm thinking I was how can the HR person for the company tell the employee go and complain against the company with them the Ministry of Labor or should pursue a constructive dismissal that HR person has some explaining to do maybe I'm training to get but beyond that here's the thing she's being harassed in the workplace her employer has the number one ticket seriously and number two investigate a number three eradicate the problem fix the problem they can't ignore it they can't say well it's my buddy so I'm not gonna investigate him that's illegal so right off the bat that's a problem that the company didn't take it seriously she's right the fact that she can't continue working in that environment is a constructive dismissal she's right she doesn't have to except that you can leave with her severance unfortunately John the ministry of labor cannot help her okay the only one that can help her in that situation is a lawyer she has to get legal advice ministry of labor cannot help you if you've been let go if you've been constructively dismissed or frankly if you're dealing with workplace harassment for that you have to take get legal advice I hope she can immediately withdraw her complaint from the ministry of labor give me a call I'll help her now she did mention off the table he didn't get taken seriously she suspects because the person at the top was the one she was complaining about what what if it's the case where you have a harassment case in your workplace and the person is harassing you is your boss and he is the top what do you do if there's no one you can legitimately complain to me if you can't deal with that internally you deal with it externally you document what happens very important always the document document document and then you call me and then we could get you out of there with compensation rather than to try to deal with the probability that's not going to get resolved internally but I don't want people to do is just to continue suffering it's not going to get better the workplace harassment if you don't do something about it don't let it impact your health don't go off on a disability leave let's talk and let's get you out of there you can also reach out through email anytime help at employment lawyers E and again 185 5-8 to 159 hundred the concept of a forced resignation what is it let's talk about it first of all what is a real resignation and does one get severance if they resigned we've had calls about that too so we absolutely have and the resignation should be a simple topic I've resigned I leave and with a regular resignation you don't get severance but here's the thing a resignation is something that you do voluntarily and that you do unilaterally your call it's your call and you're doing it for your own reasons not because someone made you not because someone told you you don't have a choice not because you felt like you didn't have a choice if you resign because you don't want to work there anymore you have a different job you're going to go back to school you're going to retire that's fine you can do that no severance but you do get severance even if you resign if the reason for the resignation is because you felt you did not have a choice someone boxed you in and that's all what I call an involuntary resignation it's a forced resignation and that's what we're talking about such determination it is you know you're not resigning if I tell you John you have no choice but to resign well what happens at that situations I've already decided you're not working here anymore I've told you you're gone the fact that you then say okay I'll resign doesn't change the reality that I've terminated your employment so a forced resignation is a termination which means you get your severance having said that if someone comes out to you and says that if you if you're viewing this show what did they say to the person who said you know what you're resigning well the answer is gonna be thanks but no thanks okay always the answer should be very simple no I'm not resigning if you want to let me go you can do what you have to do but I'm not resigning because you don't want it to be later a situation where the company said oh gosh we didn't make him he resigned voluntarily no if you're not resigning voluntarily the best advice is don't resign simply say no I'm not resigning I have no reason to resign if the company lets you go you get your severance if you're going to resign anyway because you really feel uncomfortable make sure you put that in writing email works beautifully say in that email that just you know I'm only resigning because you told me I had to I'm not resigning because I don't because I want to resign in that case we you can still get your severance people and viewers are gonna wonder you know maybe it's the optics is the situation they often here say you know it looks better to say I've resigned rather than let go I II fired so that's why they do it what do you think about that the only time it looks better and even then I'm not even sure about that is if you've done something awful something terrible like you've stolen from the company well in that case you may want to say you've resigned but for ninety nine point ninety nine percent of people know there's it's not better to have resigned it's not better at all doesn't make any difference in fact it's worse because by saying that you've resigned you make it more difficult for yourself to get the severance that your own there's no advantage there's no record of the fact that you were let go it's not gonna hurt you down the road if the company doesn't want you to work for them let them make that move don't you make it easier on them and give up your severance and of course as I said if you feel you have no choice make sure that the company knows that and then you can still get severance quick side no people believe that there's this there's permanent record for all time that you were you were let go it really isn't the the company has to give you a document called the record of employment when they let you go and people think well there's a record of something right there isn't that record of employment is only relevant for the purposes of applying for AI there's no Oh big safe safety deposit box where people's records of employments are kept where your your history is gonna be on file or searchable on Google that doesn't exist so it's always better to put yourself in a situation when you get your severance rather than leave it on the table how does someone prove that they were forced to resign rather than voluntarily easy put it in writing if you're gonna resign because you were forced in your little resignation note resignation email say I'm going to resign but I'm only resigning because he told me I had to I'm only resigning because you've told me I had no choice don't say I'm resigning and I'm gonna I look forward to spending time with my family and playing golf don't say that if you're if that's not the case say so in writing and and say so right away don't say that six months later by the way six months ago I really wasn't resigning voluntarily at the time that you're gonna resign if it's not volunteer if you're resigning because of something happening and you're being put in a difficult situation make sure that's clear in writing yeah what if it is a difficult situation at work and it's it's they're working they're continuing to work there is very uncomfortable how do they do it that's what we call it constructive dismissal something happens in the workplace that makes it difficult to continue working you're mistreated you're harassed your job is changed you've been demoted and you resign as a result because it's uncomfortable to continue working you don't want to accept that new change that new work environment that's a termination in the eyes of the law you get severance that's a constructive dismissal there are many cases many I've done personally hundreds of these cases over the years where people supposedly resigned they voluntarily walked out of the building but in the eyes of the law that was still a termination and they're owed their full severance we'll get to the severance pay calculator in more depth and kanya refused a performance improvement plan we'll cover that as well in the meantime take a short break the contact 185 five eight to one fifty nine hundred and employment our t v-- dot c as well one hour and thirty continue stick around or go anywhere you lost your job they only gave you two weeks of severance per year worked but where can you find out what you're really owed I'm going to severance pay calculator calm find out how much you're owed right now severance pay calculator calm you've been denied long term disability you think you're powerless but you have a lot more power than you think I'll tell you a secret it's a numbers game for the insurance company they're betting on you walking away from money that they owe you don't make that mistake we resolve disability claims all the time we force insurance to pay what they owe we're in your corner call Savannah and his team 183 three in your corner or go to in your corner dot CA you lost your job they said they had a good reason but you think you've been wrongfully dismissed now what are you going to do I'm going to employment lawyer dot CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer dot CA [Music] and welcome back to employment our 30 is that time of the show where we give you details on the severance pay calculator it is more fun than candy crush or some claim anyway but maybe not but it's very useful and it'll benefit you much much more greater and longer into life I promise you that severance pay calculator Tom give me some details on it though yeah I think it is probably slightly more beneficial than than candy crush although not as addictive that's right so yeah severance pay calculator calm I created that website that tool that app about six years ago to help people that have lost their job to find out instantaneously how much they wrote I didn't want people to but and there let go on Friday to be worrying about it all weekend long and oh my god who do I call what do I do you simply go to severance pay calculator calm grab your smartphone grab your tablet whatever it is and you find out in seconds once you're there gonna answer three simple questions age position length of employment and you're done it's gonna tell you whether what you've been offered is adequate it's gonna tell you how much your road you can even calculate that in dollars if you wanted to it's simple it's anonymous it's free it takes seconds to use it and it's the very first place you go to in one hand you have your severance letter in the other hand you grab your phone you input that information and now you know you're comparing your severance letter to what the calculator says if it's adequate you're feeling good about it if it's not you call me you can do that directly if you want from the calculator there's a green button you press it to contact me the first place you go to even if you haven't lost your job even if you're just worried about losing your job or are curious simply you go to severance pay calculator calm all kidding aside to is it's brilliant that you came up with this because until this point it's like oh you had to call a lawyer forget it no I gotta bother yeah absolutely but most people didn't realize that they have that much at stake well even if a lawyer can help me get another week's pay what's the point well no no it's not a week's pay could be another eight months pay that's why you don't have to take my word for it simply go to severance pay calculator comm and when you know how much you're out at least then you can make an informed decision well break it out get to an example right here forty seven-year-old Ray worked in a technical role at a small company for nine years his work was constantly praised by his superiors but that changed when a new manager joined the team as it often does Ray's performance was questioned and he was let go for cause within a matter of weeks no severance pay is he entitled to anything and by the way this is a real situation we change Ray's name to protect the innocent so to speak but the reality is you don't become a bad employee after nine years just overnight you don't go nine years is a good employee good performance reviews and then some somehow you become this terrible employee that can be let go for cause clearly this is a situation and I've seen it happen many times we've discussed this before on the show where you get a new manager and you just don't click with that manager in that manager maybe doesn't like you or you don't see things right here either why well if that happens John that's okay the company can still let you go but they have to pay full severance for rate to be let go for cause without severance he would have had to do something awful after nine years and there's no way that that happened so Ray has been wrongfully dismissed Ray is owed severance so we've been talking about the severance pay calculator calm website let's see how much Ray is actually or he's not been paid anything so you see on the screen here from severance pay calculator calm raised in a technical role nine years of service he's 47 years old I picked the salary let's say you make seventy two thousand dollars and of course he wasn't given any severance because the company says cause which is nonsense well ray correctly is assessed as being owed nine to twelve months pay assuming a salary of seventy two thousand that's somewhere north of fifty five thousand dollars could be as much as seventy thousand dollar difference that he is owed and by the way this is a real situation we didn't make it up we didn't think of something outrageous this is something that came across my desk very recently we just changed the name that's how easy it is that's how it works and that's what you have to use it for ray that meant as much as seventy thousand dollars zero to twelve months just for using the calculator it's as quickly as I spoke about it that's how quickly it is to actually use it you don't believe me check it out employment our TVC again that's the place you go to find out where you can catch our long-running a radio show where we got a ton of phone calls and we take them playing back on this show and we talk about him another call for the morning is coming right now basically an employer I never pursued it it was actually about four to five years ago is it something that I could still pursue now or is there a time period I hate this call so probably the most common question that I get is I've been let go what do but second most common question is I've been let go a bunch of years ago what can I do now so exactly like this car we just played where someone has been let go in this case some four plus years ago they just now realized well wait a second I had entitlements I didn't pursue them can I still do it the answer is unfortunately no you cannot there is a two-year limitation period and I want to stress this that it's a strict two years it's not kind of two years ballpark it's not a ballpark two years in a couple of days it's two years so anything beyond that unfortunately you'd give up your rights and I've personally spoken with hundreds of people that in the 15 years 16 years that I've been practicing law have walked away from entitlements they did it they didn't know and by the time they realize they owed something it's too late so please please don't let that happen to you this particular call we had to give the same bad news know you're out of time you can't do anything about it if you've been let go don't wait two years you can and you you are able to do that not a good idea because you need that income you need that severance you need that to live to pay your bills to carry you until you find another job so contact me right away go to severance pay calculator calm but once you're beyond that two years unfortunately you've given up your rights I remember when we started the the radio show almost everywhere we had that call the guy was like maybe early 70s when he got loud am I at a time yes did it matter that I forgot about it no unfortunately so that was an extreme case but even more common is for me to get calls from people and I go two and a half years three four five years ago unfortunately in all those situations if it's been more than two years you are out of time the performance improvement plan can you refuse it will tackle that when we come back and another phone call as well lots more of employment on the thirty is on the way sticker up that gov it's great you were being harassed and when you said something about it you're the one who lost your job now what are you gonna do I'm going to employment lawyer CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer dot CA insurance companies denied long-term disability claims all the time they give lots of excuses don't give up I've seen at all they've ignored your doctors they've ignored you you're angry and you're frustrated but there's hope we resolve disability claims all the time we force insurers to pay what they owe we're in your corner call Savannah and his team 183 three in your corner or go to in your corner CA you thought you had a secure job you didn't see it coming now what do you do I'm going to employment lawyer CA always check with the employment lawyer first at employment lawyer dot CA [Music] and walk about an employment hour and 30 John Scoles the orcs and fury tackling your workplace rights here and on the phone calls as well employment our TV CA is where you find a radio show you can catch our show for the past six plus years another call from the show right now I have a friend who's been a bank employee for around 25 years she's early fifties the situation is that the bank eliminated her position it was a customer service role in essence now they basically have four coming in and just doing whatever is required day to day and she's getting instructions by the day so I just want to know how long could she go with going along whatever they say and she's just doing random day-to-day act how long does she have to you treat it on the construct clock's ticking litter on it yeah so so here's how this looks like in this case you said it well he said it was a bank so she works for a bank and banks eliminates the position rather than doing I would say the right thing is just letting her go pay her severance let her just move on so now we're not letting you go we'll just find some odds and ends for you to do busy yeah keep you busy so that you're not just sitting there so instead of having a regular job she's doing little tasks here and there obviously the terms of her employment have changed she's no longer doing her job her job has been eliminated so she can treat that as a determination the constructive dismissal our regular viewers know this if your job changes you don't have to accept it you don't have to keep going into work you can treat that as a termination and force the issue now if she's been doing this for a while this is where the question comes in she's been doing this now for a while when is it too late when is she now stuck in this new reality well it does depend depending on how much they've changed and then how they change it usually I say it's a few weeks you only have a few weeks to pursue a constructive dismissal if it's been more than let's say three four weeks where you're not doing this new job this new a new tasks that they've given you you're considered to have accepted it and then you can't pursue this as a constructive dismissal so you have a very short window and I hope that in this case it's not too late I hope in this case she didn't spend too much time in this new role but it's very important for everyone watching us right now if your job changes your pay gets reduced you get demoted you get relocated what you only can try that out usually for a short period of time anything beyond that it becomes your new term of employment and then you're stuck and it could get worse because now they can do it again once you've deemed to accept it correct so they changed her job they didn't have a right to but she let them do it well the next time they do it now they're you gonna change it again now it's gonna be even worse at that point she's stuck she had to do anything about it because she let them do it that first time the same thing applies to whether they change your your compensation you took a pay cut because you wanted to take one for the team you want it to be a good team player well by taking that pay cut you've given the company the right to do it again and that's a problem who wants their pay to be impacted that way so don't let that happen to you don't let the terms of your employment change you have questions another resource for you is termination questions comm you can put your question there and we either answer around the show or outside of show hours who will get answered by Lior or a member of his team one right here says I was put on a performance a review plan I disagree with it but they said they would fire me if I didn't accept the process was biased and I became so stressed that I had to take a 3-month anxiety leave I'm returning soon but they will put me back on the plan what do I do well it's okay to acknowledge and you've received the plan that you physically have been given the Borgata then I got it I have it in my hands but if you don't agree with what it says you can't accept it you can't not only can you not accept it you have to put in writing why you don't accept it why it's not accurate why it's biased why it wasn't properly done and what it didn't take into consideration you have to put your position in writing because if you just accept it then by doing that you've essentially acknowledging you've done something wrong even though you don't feel like you have and down the road when the company wants to let you go for cause they'll say well we can't let you go for cause and you've acknowledged you did something wrong back then well no no you don't want to do that don't make it easier for the company to let you go for cause if you've put or not been put on a performance improvement plan you don't agree with it or giving it a negative review or a warning or a disciplinary letter if you don't agree with it say so in writing don't just accept it make it more difficult to the company to consider letting you go for cars and of course I'm not suggesting you do that aggressively disrespectfully simply a very nice email hop you drafted if you want me to saying you know here's what you didn't know here's what actually happened and I want you to know this employer by doing that you're gonna make it more difficult to be terminated for cause I think this speaks to another reason why it's so important with this situation and any others during your working career you have to document stuff emails paper files to keep it going that's why I say you do it in writing because if you do it in writing then they can't deny that you've done it they can't say that you never said it they can't become a he-said she-said put it in writing make sure that they know because if they're gonna give you the performance improvement file in writing they're not gonna tell you about it verbally so you have to respond in kind and if you do that you're protecting your own rights severance pay calculator one more time if you lost your job you want to know how much you're old you've you're a friend lost your job you're worried about losing your job you're you're wondering what may happen severance pay calculator calm it takes seconds to use free anonymous no excuse not to use it right now hope you enjoy the show thank you for hanging out you want to contact Lee or now that we're done one eight five five eight two one 5900 employment our TV dossier you can also email that as help an employment lawyer dot CA as well till next time employment our thirty we'll see you next week [Music] closed captioning of this program is brought to you in part by severance pay calculator comm find out how much you are owed right now severance pay calculator comm