The Successor Employer Analysis at Common Law: A Red Herring
There's another interprovincial schism that's emerged in the law on employment successorship issues. This time, Ontario is the outlier, but I think Ontario gets this one right. The question is how to address successor employers in a wrongful dismissal action: Length of service being an important factor, under what circumstances should I get 'credit' for my service with a predecessor employer? On a superficial level, many lawyers - even employment lawyers - will tell you that the issue is one of continuity of the relationship. If your employment with the successor employer is the same legal relationship as your employment with the predecessor employer, it's one uninterrupted period of service. On any doctrinal approach, that superficial analysis is wrong. No matter which side of the schism you come down on, a true 'successor employer' scenario precludes most arguments of a singular employment relationship that bridges multiple employers. (Occasionally, you