Problem
Mr. John Rodriguez has been employed by Progressive Industries for twenty-five years. He was originally hired as a product tester but has been promoted multiple times and is now the manager of the Quality Control department. Mr. Rodriguez is fifty-nine (59) years old, has a high school education and has undertaken no professional development training for over a decade. During the week that he started working for Progressive, the president, Mr. Bruce Bonny, had Mr. Rodriguez sign an employment contract. Under the terms of this contract, if Mr. Rodriguez could be dismissed without cause and he would be limited to receiving payment of one week per year of service.
The new president of Progressive, Mr. William Cross, has decided to terminate Mr. Rodriguez's employment due to shoddy workmanship and problems with quality control. Numerous Progressive products have failed and there are multiple customer complaints. Unfortunately, this has been occurring for many years. When Mr. Cross approached the corporate lawyer, Mr. Fred Lean, he was told that as the issue had been undocumented, that Mr. Rodriguez could not be dismissed 'for cause'.
Therefore, they have offered Mr. Rodriguez a settlement of 20 weeks' pay in lieu, based on the employment contract that he signed.
i. Can Mr. Rodriguez be held to this contract? Explain.
ii. Under the Employment Standards Act, what is Progressive required to pay Mr. Rodriguez.
iii. If Mr. Rodriguez were to sue for wrongful dismissal, what factors would the judge take into consideration?