Employment Agreement (Full-Time, Indefinite) (Ontario) by OLL
This template is for the direct, indefinite-term, full-time employment of an individual in Ontario. It is employer-side: drafted to be offered by the Employer. It is not suitable for an independent contractor engagement (use independent-contractor-services), a fixed-term role (use employment-fixed-term), or a role with reduced or variable scheduled hours (use employment-part-time).
This document comes from OLL's library of vetted legal templates
EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT [FULL-TIME, INDEFINITE TERM]
This template is for the direct, indefinite-term, full-time employment of an individual in Ontario. It is employer-side: drafted to be offered by the Employer. It is not suitable for an independent contractor engagement (use independent-contractor-services), a fixed-term role (use employment-fixed-term), or a role with reduced or variable scheduled hours (use employment-part-time). Not suitable for use in Quebec.
Drafting notes appear in italics and are to be deleted before execution. Square brackets mark information to be filled in. Delete any inapplicable optional clauses and renumber before execution.
⚠️ This area of law is enforceability-volatile. Ontario courts read a termination clause as a single scheme. If any one provision anywhere in that scheme — the without-cause clause, the for-cause clause, or a clause elsewhere in the Agreement that touches termination — falls below the minimum standards set by the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (the "ESA"), courts have held that the entire termination clause is void, including the parts that comply on their own, and a severability clause does not rescue it (Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., 2020 ONCA 391, leave to appeal to the SCC denied). If the clause is void, the Employee is not limited to the ESA minimums — they are entitled to reasonable notice at common law instead, which can be substantially larger (Machtinger v. HOJ Industries Ltd., [1992] 3 S.C.R. 1086). This is the single highest-risk drafting exercise in this library. Section 13 is drafted to track the current statutory floor rather than hard-coding numbers, but the case law interpreting what "tracks the floor" means keeps moving. Do not treat section 13 as safe because it was once reviewed — have it checked again before each significant use, and always before a mass rollout.
⚠️ Existing employees need fresh consideration. If this Agreement (or a new or more restrictive termination clause within it) is being introduced to someone who is already employed — as opposed to being offered at the point of hire — Canadian courts generally require the Employer to give the employee something of genuine value in exchange (for example a signing bonus, a promotion, or a meaningful increase in compensation). An existing employee asked to sign this Agreement for nothing in return risks the whole Agreement, not only the termination clause, being unenforceable against them. Take advice before rolling this Agreement out to existing staff.
THIS AGREEMENT is made as of [Date].
BETWEEN:
[Employer Legal Name], [a corporation incorporated under the laws of [Province / Canada] / a sole proprietorship / a partnership] having its principal place of business at [Employer Address]
(the "Employer")
— and —
[Employee Legal Name] of [Employee Address]
(the "Employee")
(each a "Party" and together the "Parties")
WHEREAS the Employer wishes to employ the Employee on a full-time, indefinite basis, and the Employee has agreed to accept that employment on the terms set out below;
NOW THEREFORE in consideration of the mutual covenants below, the Parties agree as follows:
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