Although according to some financial analysts Canada seems to be set for a speedier recovery from the current global economic turmoil, job market figures across Canada, and more particularly in BC, are far from encouraging. The most recent issue of Business in Vancouver reports that unemployment is hitting double digits in some part of BC – such as the Okanagan and the Cariboo. In April, job openings “grew in tandem with the size of the labour force”, keeping the unemployment rate at 7.4% for the whole of British Columbia. And the number of service sector jobs remained pretty much unchanged.
What could this mean? If we make the safe assumption that most job losses in the Cariboo and Okanagan were due to the resource sector, we can still somewhat guess that layoffs and hirings in the service sector (concentrated in the Lower Mainland) are still going on at the same rate. Which means that the time of the layoffs is far from gone.
Most workers are not going to be prepared for a layoff. Companies are quick at laying off, and hardly ever warn their workforce to avoid losing productivity and deter costly personal revenges (which often result in loss of confidential data). That means that a layoff will most probably come quickly, and you need to know your rights when it does.
In this post, I am going to pick a few typical layoff examples, and explain how the BC Employment Standards Act applies to them. Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer, so if you are already in a “sticky” situation, make sure to consult a professional about your specific case.
