Laid off in Canada (2026): what you're owed, and when a layoff is really a termination

If you've been laid off and there's no real recall coming, you're owed what any terminated employee is owed: written notice of termination or pay in lieu of it, up to 8 weeks in Ontario, your vacation pay, and, in Ontario and in federally regulated jobs, separate severance pay on top. The one exception is a temporary layoff that stays within the limit set by your employment standards Act. Once it runs past that limit, it becomes a termination too. This page is part of the severance pay hub, which has the figures for all 14 jurisdictions.

Updated October 20, 2026 · Figures verified against the statutes of each jurisdiction · see all figures and their sources · what's new

What "laid off" does not change

In Canadian workplaces, "laid off" gets used loosely. It can mean a short break with a recall date, a permanent job cut with no recall at all, or a plant closing that takes a whole shift with it. The word itself decides nothing. What decides your money is which of three situations you're actually in.

1. A layoff that is really a termination. Your job is gone, or the layoff has run past the statutory limit. This is the most common case, and it is the one the next section covers.
2. A statutory temporary layoff. The employment continues, on hold, inside a limit the Act sets.
3. A group termination. Enough people are let go at once that a second, longer set of notice rules kicks in.

Two things stay true in all three. First, being laid off is not being fired for cause. Your employer is saying there isn't enough work, not that you did something wrong, and the way the job ended doesn't reduce anything you're owed. Second, a layoff without notice is not a layoff without money. If the job has ended and you got no written notice, the notice is still owed, and it turns into pay in lieu.

If it is a temporary layoff

Most Acts let an employer put you on an unpaid layoff for a limited time without ending the job, and the limit is written into the statute (ESA s. 56, ESC s. 63, CLSR s. 30). Once the layoff runs past that limit, the law treats the job as terminated, whatever anyone intended, and everything in the next section falls due. In Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island there is no window to wait out beyond a few days. The limits, the ways an employer can stretch them and the date the termination runs from are all in temporary layoff rules.

If a large group was let go

Group termination rules apply once enough people are let go within a short window. The threshold is 50 employees in Ontario (ESA s. 58) and in federally regulated workplaces (CLC s. 212), and lower in several provinces. The notice periods run well beyond the individual schedule. Whether that longer notice replaces yours, adds to it or goes only to the government depends on the Act. The details are in mass termination and group layoffs.

What you're owed when the layoff is a termination

You're owed four things, each set by the employment standards statute where you work. If your employer is a bank, an airline, a railway, a telecom company or another federally regulated business, the Canada Labour Code applies instead of your province's Act. The examples below use Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and the federal jurisdiction; the other 10 are on the severance pay hub, and the severance pay calculator works yours out from your dates and your pay.

Notice of termination, or pay in lieu of it

Once you pass a short qualifying period, 3 months in Ontario and more than 90 days in Alberta, your employer has to give you written notice before the job ends or pay your regular wages for the notice it didn't give. The amount depends on your completed years of service. With four completed years, the schedules give:

• Ontario: 4 weeks (ESA s. 57), paid as termination pay if the notice isn't given (ESA s. 61).
• British Columbia: 4 weeks, which the Act calls compensation for length of service (BC ESA s. 63).
• Alberta: 4 weeks (ESC s. 56).
• Federally regulated jobs: 4 weeks (CLC s. 230).

Your employer can let you work the notice, pay it out, or mix the two, but it can't cut your wage rate while you work it. The trade-offs are in working notice vs pay in lieu.

Vacation pay on the final pay

All the wages you've earned since your last vacation payout still carry vacation pay when the job ends, however it ended. In Ontario that is 4% to start and 6% with longer service, due with the rest of your final pay (ESA s. 38). Federally regulated employees reach 8% with enough service. This is the line people most often forget to check: vacation pay when your job ends.

Severance pay, only in Ontario and federally

Only two of Canada's 14 statutes add a separate severance pay on top of the notice. In the other 12, what people call severance is termination pay under another name, and that is the whole statutory amount.

• Ontario requires 5 years of employment and an employer with a payroll of $2,500,000.00 or more, or a permanent shutdown of all or part of the business that severed 50 employees or more people (ESA s. 64). The amount is 1 week of regular wages per completed year, with any extra months counted as twelfths of a year, capped at 26 weeks (ESA s. 65).
• Federally regulated jobs require 12 months of continuous employment. The amount is the greater of 2 days of wages per completed year and 5 days of wages, with no ceiling (CLC s. 235).

When the money has to arrive

Each Act sets a deadline for the final pay. In British Columbia it is 48 hours after your employer ends the job (BC ESA s. 18). In Ontario it is the later of 7 days after the termination and your next regular payday (ESA s. 11). Alberta allows 31 days at most, and the Canada Labour Code allows 30 days. The full list is in final pay deadlines by province.

The statute is only the floor

Everything above is a statutory minimum, and three things can sit on top of it. Outside Quebec, a court can award common law reasonable notice, often well above the statute, where your contract doesn't validly limit it: common law notice vs statutory minimums. Your written contract can promise more than the Act, but never less. And a collective agreement can add recall rights, seniority and its own layoff terms, enforced through your union's grievance procedure.

A worked example: Priya, eight years in Ontario

Priya has completed eight years with a manufacturer in Ontario whose payroll is well over the threshold. She earns $1,050.00 for a regular work week and has earned $21,000.00 in gross wages since her last vacation payout, with no vacation pay paid on it yet. In March, her employer sends her home with no recall date and no continuing payments, and the layoff runs past the Ontario limit. The job has ended, and nobody gave her written notice. All figures are in Canadian dollars.

• Termination pay: 8 weeks × $1,050.00 = $8,400.00.
• Severance pay: 1 week × eight completed years × $1,050.00 = $8,400.00, well under the cap.
• Vacation pay: 6% × $21,000.00 = $1,260.00.
• Statutory minimum: $18,060.00, before any common law claim.

Move Priya to British Columbia with the same pay and service and the severance line disappears: $8,400.00 of compensation for length of service plus $1,260.00 of vacation pay, for a floor of $9,660.00. At a federally regulated employer, on a five-day week, a day's pay is $210.00, so the Code's severance at 2 days per year comes to $3,360.00, on top of $8,400.00 of pay in lieu and $1,260.00 of vacation pay. The wage and the dates are invented; every week, day and percentage comes from the section cited above.

EI: apply the week the work stops

A layoff is one of the clearest grounds for Employment Insurance (EI), and you don't have to wait for it to become a termination or for the money to be paid. Your employer issues a record of employment (ROE). Filed electronically, it's due within 5 days after the end of the pay period in which your earnings stopped (EI Regulations s. 19). Service Canada works from it: the record of employment. Apply within 4 weeks Secondary source of your last day worked, because a late claim can cost you weeks (EI Act s. 10).

Two rules decide when the first payment lands. Under the permanent rule, termination pay, severance pay and vacation pay paid out are allocated to the weeks after your last day, so benefits start once that money is used up (EI Regulations s. 36), and a waiting period of 1 week comes off the front of the claim (EI Act s. 13). Right now, temporary measures switch off both the allocation (EI Regulations s. 77.997) and the waiting period (EI Regulations s. 77.996) for a limited time. Either way, allocation delays your benefits; it doesn't cut the number of weeks. The details are in severance pay and EI and the waiting period and first payment, and the EI section and its EI calculator estimate the weekly amount for your region.

Common mistakes after a layoff

• Signing a release the same day. A package handed over at the exit meeting usually asks you to give up any claim above the statute, including common law notice. The statutory minimum is generally owed whether you sign or not, so take the time to check the numbers against your Act and see a lawyer if the offer is close to the floor.
• Assuming "layoff" means nothing is owed. Where the job is gone, the notice, the vacation pay and, in Ontario and federally, the severance pay are owed exactly as if you had been terminated, because you were.
• Waiting for a recall past the limit. Hope doesn't stop the statutory clock. Once the limit passes, the money falls due, and the deadline to file a claim with your employment standards office starts running: 2 years in Ontario and 6 months in British Columbia (BC ESA s. 74).
• Confusing termination pay and severance pay. An Ontario or federal statement that shows one number called "severance" may be paying only the notice line. The two come from different sections: termination pay vs severance pay.
• Accepting an allegation of cause after the fact. An employer that laid you off for lack of work and later claims misconduct has a high bar to meet: fired for cause: what you are still owed.