Combination of Working Notice and Pay in Lieu

General Principles

An employer may satisfy its obligation to provide reasonable notice by providing working notice, payment in lieu of notice, or a combination of both.¹ Where the employer provides a combination of working notice and pay in lieu that is insufficient, the employer will be held liable to pay further damages in lieu of reasonable notice.²

There is no functional difference at law between working notice and payment in lieu of notice.³ An employee who is required to work through the notice period is therefore not entitled to less reasonable notice than an employee who receives pay in lieu of notice, or vice versa.⁴

1. See, for example, Nagel v Del-Air Systems Ltd, 2001 SKQB 562, at para. 15, where the Court deducted the combined amount of working notice and payment lieu of notice that were already provided to employee from the wrongful dismissal award. ↩
2. Haff v Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc, 2013 BCSC 1720. ↩
3. Taylor v Brown, 2004 CanLII 39004 (ON CA), at para. 14. ↩
4. Taylor v Brown, 2004 CanLII 39004 (ON CA). ↩