An Ontario Court Just Awarded 33 Months' Pay: What the 24-Month 'Ceiling' Really Means

Most people who lose a job assume their "severance" is whatever the company offers, or the small minimum the law guarantees. In reality, an employee let go without cause in Ontario is usually owed something much larger — reasonable notice — and a recent Superior Court decision is a striking reminder of just how far that can stretch.

In Wilsher v. Olympic Wholesale (2026 ONSC 3620), the court awarded a dismissed worker the equivalent of 33 months of pay. That's well beyond the 24-month figure often treated as a hard ceiling. The case is a useful window into how termination pay actually works — and why the number an employer first puts on the table is often not the number a court would.

This is general information about Ontario employment law, not advice about any particular dismissal.

What happened

The employee was a 55-year-old night-shift supervisor with about 17 years of service. He was fired for cause — the employer said he had committed wilful misconduct by "topping up" the recorded hours of subordinate workers. The court disagreed that this justified a for-cause firing: the practice had reportedly been taught during supervisor training, existed for years, and continued after he was gone. Without just cause, the dismissal became a wrongful dismissal, and the worker was entitled to reasonable notice.

The court set the notice period at 19 months, then added a further 14 months tied to the employer's bad-faith conduct in how the firing was handled — 33 months in total.

Why 33 months is a big deal

Ontario courts have long treated 24 months as a rough upper limit on reasonable-notice awards, reserving anything beyond it for "exceptional" circumstances. Awards past that ceiling are rare. So a 33-month result naturally draws attention — and some debate about the exact legal route the court took to get there.

The takeaway for a non-lawyer isn't the courtroom mechanics. It's this: the 24-month figure is a guideline, not a wall. Long service, older age, a senior role, and an employer that behaves badly during the firing can all push an award higher. (It's also a single trial-level decision that could be appealed, so it's not the last word — but it shows how much room these numbers have.)

How "reasonable notice" is actually decided

If you're dismissed without cause and don't have an enforceable termination clause capping your entitlement, courts weigh several factors — often called the Bardal factors — to estimate how long it should reasonably take you to find comparable work:

Two things commonly shrink or grow the number:

• A valid termination clause in your employment contract can lawfully limit

you to far less than common-law notice — but only if it's drafted correctly. Ontario courts strike down clauses that fall short of the Employment Standards Act minimums, and when the clause fails, the full common-law entitlement revives.

• Bad-faith conduct — misleading the employee, alleging cause that doesn't

hold up, or handling the dismissal in a humiliating way — can add damages on top, as it did here.

What this means for everyday workers

You don't need to be a senior executive for this to matter. A few practical points flow from cases like this one:

• Don't assume the first offer is what you're owed. Employers routinely open

with the statutory minimum. Common-law notice can be many times larger.

• Read your contract's termination clause before you sign anything. It may be

the single most important paragraph in the document — and if it's defective, it may not bind you at all.

• "For cause" is a high bar. Employers often label a firing as being for

cause; courts frequently disagree. Being fired "for cause" is not the same as a court finding that cause existed.

• How you're treated on the way out counts. Bad-faith conduct during a

dismissal can translate into real, additional dollars.

• Mind the deadline. Wrongful-dismissal claims are generally subject to a

two-year limitation period in Ontario. And note that many of these mid-sized claims now fit within Small Claims Court, whose limit rose to $50,000.

The bottom line

Wilsher doesn't rewrite the rules, but it's a vivid reminder that reasonable notice in Ontario can reach much further than most people — and many employers — assume, especially for long-serving older workers who are treated unfairly on the way out.

If you've been let go and you're not sure whether the offer in front of you is fair, JSR Immigration & Legals can help you understand your options before you sign anything. Reach out and we'll walk through it with you.

This article is general information about Ontario employment law, not legal advice, and it summarises one court decision that may be appealed. Every dismissal turns on its own facts — confirm your situation with a licensed representative or lawyer, and see the decision on CanLII for the full reasons.