Mass termination in Ontario: Employer obligations and Form 1

When an Ontario-based employer plans a large-scale workforce reduction, letting 50 or more people go at once, the usual termination rules don’t apply. Notice periods become longer, the provincial government needs to be informed upfront and, since July 2025, every affected employee must receive information about where to find job search and retraining help.

While most of those obligations are straightforward, the exact order of operations matters. Under Ontario law, the notice clock starts when the Director of Employment Standards receives Form 1—not when employees hear the news. Getting that sequence wrong may nullify the notice, and this article provides all relevant information on how to conduct a mass termination in Ontario to avoid that outcome.

Under Ontario law, a mass termination happens when an employer terminates the employment of 50 or more employees at the same establishment within a four-week period. The Employment Standards Act mass termination rules sit in section 58 of the ESA (Part XV).

Once that threshold is met, notice is based on how many employees are affected rather than length of service. That’s the key difference between layoffs and individual terminations in Ontario, where ESA notice runs from one to eight weeks depending on tenure.

All three of these conditions must be met to trigger mass termination rules in Ontario:

• Number: 50 or more employees have their employment terminated.
• Time: The terminations fall within the same four-week period. The window rolls, so it covers any four consecutive weeks, not a calendar month.
• Place: The employees work at the same establishment.

The ESA defines an establishment as a location where the employer carries on business. Separate locations count as one establishment if they’re in the same municipality, or if employees at one location have seniority (“bumping”) rights that extend to the other. For example, a head office and a warehouse across town can count together, and dividing cuts between them won’t take you under the threshold.

Yes, in most cases remote employees are included. Since October 26 2023, according to Ontario’s ESA guide, an employee’s home counts as a location of the establishment for mass termination purposes, as long as the employee works only from home. The same-municipality rule then applies, so a fully remote employee living in London counts toward the total for the employer’s London office.

Conversely, employees who split their time between home and a company location aren’t counted at home. They count at the company location.

Under section 58, the minimum notice depends on how many employees are terminated within the four-week window:

EMPLOYEES TERMINATED IN A FOUR-WEEK PERIOD	MINIMUM WRITTEN NOTICE
50 to 199	8 weeks
200 to 499	12 weeks
500 or more	16 weeks

Source: Ontario Ministry of Labour, Your guide to the Employment Standards Act

Employers must give each employee written notice and can provide working notice, pay in lieu, or a combination. During the statutory notice period, employers must also keep paying regular wages and continue benefit plan contributions. Keep in mind that these are ESA minimums. Many employees will also be entitled to common law reasonable notice, which is often longer.

Form 1 is the Ontario government’s Notice of Termination of Employment under subsection 58(2) of the ESA. It tells the Director of Employment Standards that 50 or more terminations are coming, and the rule attached to it is short: notice of mass termination isn’t effective until the Director receives Form 1.

File Form 1 so the Director receives it no later than the day you give employees their individual notices. The notice period can’t begin before that date. The Ministry accepts Form 1 by email, fax, personal delivery during office hours, or mail if delivery can be verified. Whichever method you choose, keep proof of the arrival date.

Here’s the sequence, step by step:

1. Confirm the count: 50 or more employees, one establishment, one four-week window, with fully remote employees included.
2. Deliver Form 1 to the Director of Employment Standards and keep proof of receipt.
3. Post a copy of Form 1 in the workplace on the first day of the notice period.
4. Give each affected employee three documents on that same day: their individual written notice, a copy of Form 1, and the most recent Employment Ontario Career Supports information sheet.
5. Count the 8, 12, or 16 weeks from the day the Director received Form 1, not from the day employees heard the news.

Picture an employer that tells 120 employees on a Monday that their jobs will end in eight weeks, then sends Form 1 to the Director two weeks later. Because notice isn’t effective until the form arrives, those eight weeks can’t be counted from that Monday. At best, the clock starts when the Director receives the form, leaving the employer short of the required notice.

In practice, a shortfall in ESA notice usually has to be made up with termination pay, and it can open the door to complaints.

The fix is simple: file first, announce second. Make Form 1 the first action item in the project plan, and treat confirmed receipt as the gate that has to open before any employee conversations take place.

Section 58 includes an exception that employers often assume covers them when it doesn’t. The Section 58 notice rules don’t apply if both of these are true:

• The number of employees terminated is 10% or less of the employees who have been employed for at least three months at the establishment.
• None of the terminations are caused by the permanent discontinuance of all or part of the employer’s business at the establishment.

Many employers focus on the first condition and miss the second. Take a distribution centre with 800 employees that cuts 70 roles. Because 70 is under 10% of 800, the exception may apply if the cuts come from scaling back volume across the site. But if the employer permanently closes its returns department and the 70 roles disappear, that’s a permanent discontinuance of part of the business. The full rules apply, even though the percentage test is met.

Two more points are worth checking. The 10% is measured against employees with at least three months’ service, not total headcount, so recent hires drop out of the calculation and can push a reduction over the line. Moreover, even when the exception applies, the regular individual notice rules under the ESA still apply. Whether a cut counts as discontinuing “part” of a business is a judgment call, so get legal advice before relying on the exception.

Since July 1 2025, employers running a mass termination in Ontario must give every affected employee a copy of the most recent version of the Employment Ontario Career Supports information sheet on the first day of the notice period. The sheet describes provincial services for job search and skills training, and the Ministry publishes it in both English and French.

Two practical habits will help HR teams stay compliant:

• Check that you’re using the current version on the day notices go out.
• Keep a record showing that each employee received it.

Now, pointing people toward their next job is a statutory part of any mass layoff in Ontario. However, the sheet must be seen as a starting point, since it lists only public services. It doesn’t give anyone a coach, a resume review, or a job search plan built around their experience. Still, most employers go beyond the legal minimum.

The Career Supports sheet sets the floor. Outplacement fills the gap between a list of services and a new role. Because the sheet goes out on day one of the notice period, that’s also the natural day to start outplacement, so employees can use their 8 to 16 weeks of notice to job search with support. Careerminds programs, for example, deliver a 95% placement rate, and senior leaders affected by the cuts can get dedicated executive outplacement support.

A few more rules shape the weeks between notice and the termination date:

• Job-seeking leave: Since November 27 2025, employees who receive section 58 notice can take up to three days of unpaid, job-protected leave during the notice period to look for work.
• Early resignations: Employees who receive notice can resign before the termination date by giving written notice of at least one week (under two years’ service) or two weeks (two or more years).
• Temporary work afterwards: Employers can offer temporary work for up to 13 weeks after the termination date without issuing new notice. After that, employers must provide new notice.

Severance pay is separate from notice and has its own eligibility test. An employee qualifies if their employment is severed and they’ve worked for the employer for five or more years, and the employer either:

• Has an Ontario payroll of at least $2.5 million, or
• Severed the employment of 50 or more employees within six months because all or part of the business permanently closed.

Severance equals one week of regular wages per completed year of service, plus a prorated amount for partial years, capped at 26 weeks. The second route matters for smaller employers: a closure that affects 50 or more people can create severance obligations even when payroll is under $2.5 million. Make sure to build these entitlements into your termination policy.

Handling a mass termination in Ontario comes down to sequence. Count correctly, test the 10 percent exception honestly, send Form 1 to the Director first, and give each employee their notice, a copy of Form 1, and the Career Supports sheet on day one. Following these steps will put your organization in the right direction, ensure full legal compliance, and support employees through the Career Supports sheet and other meaningful resources, such as outplacement.

Partnering with a results-first, human-oriented outplacement firm like Careerminds gives your employees personalized coaching and job search support starting on day one of the notice period. Book a free demo with one of our experts to see how our programs work.