Mitigation: To Deduct Or Not To Deduct Earnings? That Is The Question.

The legal corollary of an employer's obligation to provide reasonable notice of termination is the employee's duty to mitigate the damages flowing from a wrongful termination. The operation of the duty to mitigate was described by the Supreme Court of Canada in Red Deer College v. Michaels¹ as follows:

If, however, the employee can obtain other employment, he can avoid part at least of these damages. Therefore, in an action by the employee against the employer for a wrongful discharge, a deduction of the net amount of what the employee earned, or what he might reasonably have earned in other employment of like nature, from what he would have received had there been no breach, furnishes the ordinary measure of damages.