Why Use an Employment Contract? In Canada, all employment relationships are contractual whether or not a written employment contract is signed. Any time an employment relationship is commenced, an employer and employee have a “contract” to perform things (e.g. employee promises to work, and the employer promises to pay wages). An employment agreement is instantly implied as soon as the employment relationship is formed.

When there is no written employment contract, and instead there is an implied employment contract, then terms and conditions of employment will be governed by the common law.

In light of the relatively generous rights of employees implied by the common law, most employers in Ontario should require their employees to sign a written employment contract prior to commencing work. A written employment agreement can displace the common law entitlements implied on an employment relationship or add on to them. This is why even a basic employment contract template can be helpful for employers, but a more advanced one, like with goHeather, is even better.
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Are Employment Contracts Enforceable? Employment contracts are generally enforceable unless there is a specific defect that makes them unenforceable, including, but not limited to: lack of consideration and failure to comply with employment standards.

Employment legal documents are nuanced and require careful and considered legal knowledge of every jurisdiction's own employment standards and jurisprudence. For example, a document made for California, USA employers will likely not be enforceable in Ontario, Canada because of different employment standards in those jurisdictions. Likewise, an outlier case in the courts could change the law instantly in any jurisdiction.

goHeather's contracts are designed to be enforceable. All our contract templates are tailored by Ontario employment lawyers and they are constantly updated to keep up to date with the latest changes in the law. The reason why we created goHeather was to help SMBs download inexpensive employment contract templates without fear of outdated or illegal clauses. A common issue we found was employers were downloading American contracts for their Canadian business, yet they did not even know the contract they downloaded was void where they operate.

With goHeather, it is so simple and inexpensive to make a solid employment contract for your business. Fill in a few details on our lawyer-made contract template, watch the employment contract sample grow, and save it in PDF or convert it to Microsoft Word later. It is that easy and it is FREE to try. Complete your sample employment contract today in five minutes.