Facts about severance
pay for
OPSEU members in the Ontario Public Service
December, 2000
NOTE: this is a general guideline only. Check your OPS collective
agreement and talk to your local president for information that might
relate to your specific workplace.
OPSEU has serious concerns about the way in which the Ontario
government is calculating severance pay for employees with more than
one year of service. You may have rights to severance pay under both
your collective agreement and the Employment Standards Act. You are
entitled to whichever provides you with the greater benefit.
If you receive severance pay from your employer, check closely to
make sure the amount is correct. If you have always worked as a
full-time classified employee, there is a good chance that it has been
calculated correctly. However, there is a greater chance for error to
creep into the calculation if:
- you have a prior period of broken service with the employer;
- you have unclassified service prior to becoming classified
and/or
- you have worked fluctuating hours as a part-time employee, or
as an unclassified employee.
How to calculate your
severance pay
To calculate your severance pay, you need to add up the weeks you
worked for the Ontario government.
Your severance calculation includes:
- active employment: time when you were at work. This includes
weeks in which you worked less than a full week.
- inactive employment: time when you were on vacation or a
leave of absence.
- periods worked for any Ontario government Ministry, not just
your current one.
Your severance calculation does not include:
- gaps between periods of service -- times when you were not
employed by the Ontario government.
Once you have added up the number of eligible complete years and
complete months of employment, multiply the number of years worked by
your salary at the time of your termination. For example, 10 years and
6 months of employment at $800 per week is calculated as 10.5 times
$800 equals $8400 severance pay owing. "Salary" is your
regular weekly non-overtime salary rate at the time of termination. If
you work fluctuating hours, then your salary is the average of your
non-overtime earnings over your last 13 weeks. For this calculation, do
not include any weeks during this 13-week period when you were on
leave, sick leave or WSIB.
Once you know your severance owing, subtract any previous severance
pay you received (and kept) from the government of Ontario. You cannot
get severance pay twice for the same period of employment.
The maximum number of weeks payable for severance pay is 26. If you
complete the above calculations and find you are entitled to less than
five weeks' severance pay, then you are further ahead with what you
receive under your collective agreement (entitlements under the
Employment Standards Act apply if you have five or more years of
service). In this case you do not need to take further action.
If you did not get paid out the full amount of your severance pay,
contact your steward and file a grievance that will be submitted to
your Ministry. You should grieve that you have been denied your
legislated severance entitlement. You should also file a complaint
with the Employment Standards Branch of the Ministry of Labour at
1-800-531-5551. Don't delay: there are limits for filing a
grievance and for filing a complaint with the Ministry of Labour.
Exceptions: when you don't get
severance pay
If you retire upon divestment with an unreduced pension
If your job is being divested to an operator outside the OPS, and
you retire rather than accept a job offer with the new employer, and
you are retiring on an "unreduced" pension, then you will
not be entitled to severance pay.
If you can "elect to work"
The employer is not required to pay severance for casual or
intermittent employees:
- who are given complete discretion to elect to work or
not when they are requested to work,
- who are not left with the impression that failure to work when
requested will lead to the loss of a job, future offers of work
or other disciplinary action, and
- where the general pattern of work is not regular.
If you are an unclassified employee, and your contract says you
work "on call" or "as required," this is not the
same as being able to "elect to work." If you feel pressured
to go to work, you do not have complete discretion. You are still
entitled to severance.
