Court decision
Your building got a new contractor. Who owes your severance?
Cleaning, security, condo management: in these jobs, the building can switch to a new company and your job goes up for grabs. If the new company doesn't keep you, who owes your notice? On September 10, Ontario's Court of Appeal answered: the new company, and not just the legal minimum.
What happened
In Kondaj v. Crossbridge Condominium Services Ltd., 2026 ONCA 636, a building manager had worked about three and a half years for a property management company. The condo building put its contract out to tender and gave it to another company.
The new company chose not to keep him. His old employer didn't give him another building either. The new company paid his three weeks of termination pay under the Employment Standards Act, the legal minimum. Neither company paid anything more. Each said the other owed it.
What the courts decided
The Act has special rules for building services (it names food, security and cleaning, and regulations can add others). When a building replaces its provider, a new provider that doesn't employ the old provider's workers must treat them as if it had terminated them itself, and it is deemed to have been their employer (s. 75).
The motion judge read that to include common law notice, the pay courts award in place of notice, which is often far more than the minimum. He awarded 10 months, $78,925, plus lost benefits, against the new company. The Court of Appeal agreed. Letting the new company pay only the minimum, it said, would push new providers to let existing workers go.
The motion judge also found the employee had been "held hostage" to the fight between the two companies, and ordered higher legal costs against the new company. The Court of Appeal upheld that too.
What it means for you
- If your building changed providers and the new one didn't keep you, it may owe you more than the ESA minimum.
- The new provider is treated as your employer from the start, so your years with the old provider count.
- After this decision, the court noted, workers in this situation will have to choose between an ESA complaint and a lawsuit. They can't do both, so check what each could get you before you file.
See both numbers for your job
The calculator shows your ESA minimum next to what courts have awarded in cases like yours. Or ask your question in the chat.
Ontario Severance is independent and isn't a law firm; this is general information. From a chat or a calculator result, you can ask us for help finding an employment lawyer, and we reply within one business day.
Sources
This article is general information about Ontario employment law, not legal advice. The law and its application change, and every case turns on its own facts: for advice about your situation, speak with an Ontario employment lawyer.
