With the current COVID-19 pandemic affecting virtually all
industries, many businesses have been forced to temporarily close
their doors or scale back their operations due to the nature of
their business. This has resulted in employers considering their
options and liabilities for reducing their workforce by laying off
or terminating their employees. We discussed these options in our
blog post on March 31st.
One of the issues raised in our previous blog post was
"frustration of contract". If an employment contract is
"frustrated", the employer is not required to provide
notice of termination or payment in lieu of notice.
The Employment Standards Act (ESA), in section
65(1)(d), recognizes that statutory notice or payment in lieu of
notice is not required for an employee "employed under an
employment contract that is impossible to perform due to an
unforeseeable event or circumstance". Typical examples of
this are fires, floods, or natural disasters. Recently the
