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If so, how have you reacted or how do you propose to react to this news?

TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE

If you have not reacted by:

a) Immediately seeking an alternate position;

b) Receiving adequate advice; and

c) Taking adequate measures to position yourself so as to avoid waiving or forfeiting sums or rights coming to you,

you may lose the opportunity of cutting on important losses to you by taking charge of events and securing a position of informed control over a situation you should otherwise have well in hand.


SEEKING AN ALTERNATE POSITION

Looking for another position is your chief responsibility. It is not only important but imperative and you must act on this without delay. You are the person most competent to assess your strengths and get going in the job market.

RECEIVING ADEQUATE ADVICE AND TAKING MEASURES REGARDING THE LOSS OF YOUR EMPLOYMENT

This is a field where you are most likely not qualified and the lines that follow will shed some light on the issues this involves. Keep on reading.

WHY AND WHAT TYPE OF ADVICE SHOULD YOU BE CONSIDERING AND WHAT KIND OF ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN?

WHY SHOULD YOU SEEK ADVICE? BECAUSE IT’S YOUR BUSINESS!

Because your job is your business and no one else’s. As an executive, employee or professional, your job is not only your livelihood, it is your business through the services you render and the money you receive in exchange.

Therefore, losing your business is serious business, business that ought to receive at least as much attention as you did discharging your duties.

There is much at stake. Reputation wise, money wise, tax wise, pension wise, not to mention stockholder wise, to name only a few of the instances you ought to be looking closely at in order to keep your losses down.

WHAT TYPE OF ADVICE?

You may well be tempted to seek informal advice from friends, relatives, co-workers or certain acquaintances or professionals you think may be familiar with these types of situations.
This in many cases may not be such a good idea, especially if you choose to confine yourself only to that type of advice.

So don’t leave your business to the speculations of unqualified pundits that will deal you second-hand knowledge.

The type of advice you should be seeking is legal advice, dispensed by a licensed attorney whose practice is mainly focused on employment Law.

In so doing, you will receive entirely independent, responsible, expert advice specific to your own situation, thus addressing all issues you think (or may not have thought) you are faced with.
No other professional is qualified to do this.

You owe it to yourself to get this type of support, so as to get a fair appraisal of your situation, the options you actually have, what you ought to look for and consider, what to do, how to do it, and within what delays.

HERE ARE THE TEN KEY QUESTIONS GENERALLY ADDRESSED TO OR BY COUNSEL:

1. What type of termination are you faced with? A dismissal, a constructive dismissal, a layoff?

2. Is there a serious cause for your dismissal? Or, have you been singled out fairly in the layoff process?

3. How should you react? What is the best measured course to follow if you disagree with the decision to terminate your employment? How can you preserve all your options?

4. Have you received fair notice or fair compensation?

5. How is notice or severance compensation actually established? How should it normally be paid and what are the tax consequences attached to this type of payment?

6. What happens to back-pay? Promised (unpaid) bonuses or additional remuneration earned during the course of the period prior to termination?

7. What happens to funds you had or saving plans? The stock options you held?

8. Must you necessarily sign the release form submitted to you before receiving any compensation for the loss of your employment?

9. What about those documents you signed upon joining employment regarding confidential information, non-competition or other forms of restrictions regarding solicitation of clients, suppliers, business partners or employees, etc.?

10. What are your rights at large generally?

SO WHAT EXACT ANSWERS DO YOU HAVE TO THESE QUESTIONS? HOW ACCURATE ARE THEY ACTUALLY?

If you are faced with such questions, get answers and get them promptly.

Why?

Again, because legal delays to act in these matters are fairly short and sometimes even shortened by certain initiatives, either you or your former employer may act upon.

Because also upon being properly informed, the decisions you will make will be your own, not those the mere passing of time or being misinformed may lead you to make.

COMMON EXCUSES TO NOT ACT IN SUCH MATTERS AND COMMON EXCUSES THAT GENERALLY LEAD TO THE FORFEITURE OF YOUR RIGHTS:

1.   I DO NOT KNOW AN EMPLOYMENT LAW LAWYER.

WELL THE ANSWER TO THIS IS VERY SIMPLE.   HERE ARE GOOD WAYS TO FIND QUALIFIED COUNSEL:

a) Call us!

b) Call your local Bar Association. They have proper lists.

c) Call a lawyer you know or professional you know and seek a competent referral. A few phone calls will do.

d) Go to the Web and Google “employment law” or “employment lawyer” and take it from there.

e) Go to the yellow pages and seek appropriate profiles.

In all cases, interview the lawyer you speak to and ask the questions you feel will demonstrate his experience in this field of expertise such as:

a) The number and types of employment matters he has handled;

b) The other types of matters he has been involved in;

c) His years in practice, etc.

2.   I DO NOT WANT TO INVEST TOO MUCH MONEY IN THIS.

a) Seeking initial advice over the phone, more often than not, is free of charge as part of an initial screening process by the attorney you will speak to.

b) An attorney with sufficient experience will, within an hour or so, determine whether you ought to react or not to your termination, in what way you should do so and what this is likely to bear in terms of results or cost/benefit.

c) Legal fees incurred in a termination of employment process are generally tax deductible and therefore have actual costs to you of approximately 50% of the amount billed.

d) Often, legal costs for an initial evaluation can be funded by your personal insurance carrier or by the terminating employer, who will allow for a budget for this type of consultation. Funding of such a consultation provides for a good indication that fair treatment under the law is under way or will be obtained. In any event, this lets you find out for sure.

e) Remember that more often than not, the company terminating your employment has sought legal advice prior to implementing measures of termination and expects, or has braced for, some type of reaction on your part.

3.   PURSUING MY RIGHTS MIGHT JEOPARDIZE MY FUTURE CAREER.

a) This is a misconception without foundation. Persons using this type of argument generally are resorting to means used by people seeking to impose their views, but yet otherwise unable to convince you objectively of their point of view.

b) Always remember that the people hiring or firing you may, more often than not, have been faced in the past with the termination of their own employment and know where you are coming from.

4.   THIS IS GOING TO TAKE LONG.

a) Employment matters are generally handled on a priority basis and, as noted earlier, delays are fairly short.

b) If you have taken the right steps, time will not act against you, in fact it may well act in your favour, whether you relocate sooner or later than you may have thought.

SO TO SUMMARIZE

STEP 1: Take immediate charge of your own situation within your area of competence. In other words, take immediate steps to seek and find an alternate position and get back in business!

STEP 2: Initiate without delay the process of finding a competent employment lawyer who can assist you.

STEP 3: Seek an opinion as to what things you may do, or not do, to react to your termination.

STEP 4: Once informed, devise a plan or a strategy with the goals you wish to achieve.

Braman Barbacki Moreau, s.e.n.c.

Bernard Moreau (514) 905-4226
Josée Pilon (514) 905-4227
Frédérique Tremblay (514) 905-4228