Most people assume “dismissal” means being fired outright. In Ontario employment law, that’s only half the picture — and the other half, constructive dismissal, catches a lot of employees off guard.

Wrongful dismissal: the straightforward case

Wrongful dismissal happens when an employer ends your employment without providing proper notice or pay in lieu, and without legal cause to terminate you immediately. It’s usually easy to identify — you were let go, and either weren’t given adequate notice or weren’t given any at all.

Importantly, “wrongful” doesn’t mean the employer needed a reason to end your employment — in most cases, they don’t. It means they didn’t provide what the law requires when they did it.

Constructive dismissal: dismissed without being fired

Constructive dismissal is less obvious, and often missed entirely. It happens when your employer unilaterally changes a fundamental term of your employment — significantly enough that a reasonable person in your position would conclude the employment relationship has effectively ended, even though no one used the word “fired.”

Common examples include:

  • A significant, unilateral pay cut
  • A demotion or substantial change in responsibilities
  • A forced relocation that wasn’t part of your original role
  • A toxic or hostile change in working conditions imposed by the employer

The key word is significant. Minor adjustments to duties or a reasonable business restructuring generally won’t qualify — the change has to go to the heart of what you agreed to when you took the job.

Why the distinction matters

Both situations can entitle you to the same thing: notice, or pay in lieu of notice, calculated the same way as any other dismissal. The difference is that constructive dismissal requires you to recognize that a dismissal has actually occurred — your employer isn’t going to tell you.

This creates a real trap: if you keep working under the changed conditions for too long without objecting, you risk being seen as having accepted the change, weakening your claim.

If something at work has changed significantly

If your role, pay, or working conditions have shifted dramatically and you’re wondering whether it crosses the line into constructive dismissal, that’s exactly the kind of question worth asking early — before continuing to work under the new terms undermines your position.