Employers May Not Deduct CERB From Wrongful Dismissal Damages

When an employee's employment contract is terminated without notice or without cause for the termination (that is, no wrong doing on the part of the employee) they are entitled to compensation in lieu of notice.

Generally, an employee who is dismissed without reasonable notice of their termination is entitled to damages from their employer for breach of contract based on the income they would have earn during the "notice period." The amount of income that the employer has to pay for the notice period is reduced by any amounts the employee receives as a result of their mitigation. As an example, this means that if a court were to decide that a reasonable notice period is six-months but the employee obtained a new job after one month of unemployment, the previous employer would likely have to pay one-month of income to the employee. This is because employers should not have to compensate an employee for damages that the employee did not actually experience.