When an employer unilaterally changes the essential terms of an employee’s contract of employment and the employee does not agree to the changes, is the employee constructively dismissed?

Ontario, Canada


The following excerpt is from Lawrence v Norwood, 2016 ONSC 6072 (CanLII):

When an employer unilaterally makes substantial changes to the essential terms of an employee’s contract of employment and the employee does not agree to the changes, the employee has been constructively dismissed and the employee is entitled to compensation in lieu of notice and damages. The test is whether a reasonable person in the same situation as the employee would have felt that the essential terms of the employment contract were being substantially changed. (Faber v. Royal Trust Co., 1997 CanLII 387 (SCC), [1997] 1 S.C.R. 846)

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