Labour Standards
Generally, your employer must give you advance notice if they are going to dismiss you.
This notice provides you time to look for another job and is called reasonable notice. However, your employer does not have to provide notice if dismissing you for just cause.
You can be fired without cause until you have been working at your job for 10 years. However, you cannot be fired without notice unless your employer meets specific conditions. This is different from other provinces like Ontario, where you are protected from being fired without cause after 3 months of employment.
The length of your reasonable notice period depends on:
The facts surrounding your dismissal.
Your employment contract
Whether you file a claim with Labour Standards, or in Court
The amount of notice provided under the statute is determined by the length of time that you have worked for your employer, and whether a large group of employees were dismissed at or around the same time.
Rather than provide notice, your employer may choose to pay you an equivalent amount to what you would have earned during the notice period. This is called pay in lieu of notice or “severance” pay. Your employer always has the choice to provide pay rather than notice.