Can my employer force me to sign a new contract?
Q: Can an employer require their employees to sign new contracts?
A: An employer can offer a new contract to an existing employee, but the employee cannot be forced to accept. An employee’s refusal to accept is not cause for dismissal without pay.
Employment relationships can last many years, during which time the business evolves and the employee’s role may evolve along with it.
Employment law itself also changes over time. Given these realities, employers will often want updated contracts that reflect today’s circumstances.
An employer can always ask an employee to sign a new contract. However, the employee is free to reject a new contract and keep working on the terms of their existing contract — even if they accepted a job years ago based on a verbal offer and have no written contract.
Faced with this situation, the employer does have options. They can agree to let the employee continue working under their existing contract. Or, they can give the employee proper notice that the existing contract is terminated (or will terminate on a specific date in the future) but make clear that the new contract is still being offered and remains open for the employee to accept.
Employers should always get legal advice before updating their contracts because an improperly drafted or implemented contract likely won’t hold up in court. And if there is any ambiguity in a contract, then a court will adopt the interpretation that is more favourable to the employee.
For employees, it is important to get legal advice before agreeing to a new contract. Employers generally don’t offer new contracts out of the goodness of their hearts — they want contracts in place that will protect their rights, which often means limiting the employee’s right to notice of termination or payment in lieu of notice.
This article was originally published by The Hamilton Spectator.
