A dismissal meeting is often scheduled before anyone has finished deciding what kind of dismissal it is. A manager knows they want the working relationship to end. Payroll asks for the final date, IT prepares to remove access and somebody drafts a letter. The difficulty isn't arranging these steps. It's that the classification made at the beginning changes the employer's obligations at nearly every stage, and the word used in the letter doesn't make the classification correct. Without cause means making a lawful ending, not identifying a legal fault. In much of provincial Canadian employment law, an employer can ordinarily end an indefinite employment relationship without establishing misconduct if it complies with the applicable notice obligations, contract and statutory protections. Those obligations may include employment standards notice or pay, common law reasonable notice if not validly modified by contract, and separate rules governing benefits, vacation and outstanding wages. A termination can still be unlawful if motivated by discrimination, a protected leave, retaliation or another prohibited reason. Human rights and employment standards protection do not disappear because the employer offers money.
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