Can Your Employees Quit Without Providing Fair Notice?

We know that employers usually owe notice of termination. But can an employee just walk out without providing fair notice? No.

Many employers are vexed – and seriously inconvenienced – when an employee announces the decision to quit and departs without properly handing off the work. Employers don't have to live with that.

It is well-settled law that, absent a contractually enforceable termination provision, an employee must provide an employer with reasonable notice of the employee's decision to end the employment relationship.

See RBC Dominion Securities Inc. v. Merrill Lynch, [2008] 3 S.C.R. 79.
See also Oxman v. Dustbane Enterprises Ltd., [1988] OJ No. 2067 ONCA

The amount of notice that must be provided in advance of an employee's resignation is not always easy to assess. The "high watermark" appears to be the trial decision in GasTops v. Forsyth, 2012 ONCA 134, where the trial judge held that the four individual defendants who were key employees ought