Conducting a Termination Meeting in Ontario: What Employers Should Do

How a termination meeting is run rarely changes whether an employee was entitled to be let go — but it can significantly change how they react, whether they escalate, and how a court or mediator later views the employer’s conduct. A well-structured termination meeting is one of the simplest ways to reduce legal and reputational risk in Ontario.

This article walks through what to do before, during, and after the meeting, and when to bring in a lawyer before you even schedule it.

Before the Meeting: Preparation

1. Confirm the legal basis and calculations first. Know whether this is a without-cause termination, and have termination pay, severance pay (if it applies), and any release already calculated before the meeting is scheduled.
2. Prepare the termination letter and any release in advance. Do not draft these on the fly during or after the meeting itself.
3. Choose a private, neutral location and a reasonable time. Avoid meeting rooms with glass walls, and avoid a Friday-afternoon timing chosen purely for the employer’s convenience.
4. Plan for logistics — return of equipment, building access, final pay timing, and benefits continuation.
5. Decide who will be in the room. Generally two people: the person delivering the news and a witness or HR representative, not a large group.

During the Meeting: What to Cover

• [ ] State clearly and early that the decision has been made and is final
• [ ] Explain the effective date of termination
• [ ] Summarize termination pay, severance pay (if applicable), and any other entitlements
• [ ] Provide the termination letter and any release in writing
• [ ] Explain next steps for benefits, final pay, and return of company property
• [ ] Keep the meeting brief — this is not the venue to relitigate the reasons for the decision

What Not to Do in the Room

• Do not debate or re-argue the reasons for the decision once it has been communicated
• Do not pressure the employee to sign a release on the spot
• Do not make promises about future references, rehiring, or additional payments that have not actually been approved
• Do not disclose the termination to other staff before the affected employee has been told
• Do not let the meeting run long or become adversarial

After the Meeting: Documentation and Follow-Up

Document what was said, by whom, and when, while it is still fresh. Confirm the practical details in writing — final pay date, benefits end date, return of company property. If a release was provided, give the employee real time to review it rather than expecting a signature the same day.

When to Involve a Lawyer Before You Schedule the Meeting

Get legal advice before the meeting, not after, whenever the termination involves a longer-service or senior employee, a for-cause allegation, a possible human rights or reprisal angle, or an employee currently on or recently returned from a protected leave. These situations carry meaningfully higher legal risk, and the meeting itself becomes much easier to run once the legal groundwork is already done.

Coordinating Multiple Terminations on the Same Day

When more than one employee is being let go at the same time — during a restructuring, for example — the same one-on-one structure still applies to each individual meeting. Resist the temptation to notify a group all at once or to let word spread informally before each affected employee has had their own private conversation. Stagger the meetings, keep the messaging consistent between them, and make sure whoever is delivering the news has the correct calculations for each specific employee rather than a single generic script. If the numbers involved are large enough to raise a mass termination question, that assessment needs to happen well before the meetings are scheduled, not during them.

Frequently asked questions