Resignations and Retirement in Alberta – Employer Risks and Best Practices
“I quit!!!”
Did they really?
“Have you considered retirement?”
As an Employer, should you be saying that to your employee?
Resignations and retirements often feel straightforward for employers. An employee says they are leaving, you accept it, and everyone moves on. However, it is not that simple. If the resignation is unclear, or if the employee was pressured to retire or resign, the courts may treat that exit as a dismissal. That can trigger significant severance exposure under both the Employment Standards Code and common law.
In this post, I will walk through where employers often get into trouble and how to manage resignations and retirements in a way that is fair, defensible, and practical.
1. When is a resignation legally valid in Alberta
Under Alberta common law, a resignation must be clear and unequivocal. The court will ask two questions.
- Did the employee actually intend to resign
- Would a reasonable employer in the same situation understand that the employee meant to resign
This principle has been confirmed in Alberta cases, including Carroll v Purcee Industrial Controls Ltd 2017 ABQB 211, where the court emphasized that resignation must be a clear and unequivocal expression of the intention to end the employment relationship. When determining whether an employee has resigned, the Court used both a subjective and an objective test: subjectively, did the employee intend to resign; and objectively, considering all circumstances, would a reasonable employer have understood that the employee had resigned.
A real example from my practice
During the COVID period, I represented a long-service employee who had serious underlying health issues. He was very concerned about contracting COVID and tried to maintain distance from coworkers, especially those not wearing masks.
At one point, a colleague came in for a hug, and then did it again. He reacted strongly and yelled, triggering a chain of events that led to a meeting with HR. From his perspective, HR did not take his health concerns seriously. During a heated discussion, he said, “I quit,” and left.
The company immediately treated it as a resignation. HR immediately required him to sign a document saying he quit, which he did. It announced internally that he had quit. Still upset, he did not return to work for a couple of days. Two days later, the company sent him a letter confirming his resignation and did not pay severance.
About a week later, he came to us. He had worked for over 30 years and was in his late 60s. We relied on the applicable legal principles governing resignations in Alberta, including the requirement of a clear and unequivocal intention to resign. The matter ultimately resolved with a severance payment to my client.
Lessons for employers
- Heat-of-the-moment resignations are risky.
If an employee states they quit during a heated exchange, Alberta courts expect the employer to pause, allow a cooling-off period, and confirm whether the employee truly intended to resign. If you rush to treat it as a final resignation, you increase the risk that a court will later view the situation as a dismissal. - Policy-based or deemed resignations are not automatic.
Some employers rely on policies stating that an employee is deemed to have resigned if they do not show up or call in for a set number of days. Courts are cautious about these policies, especially where they are used to avoid wrongful dismissal obligations or conflict with minimum employment standards. - Pressure or confusion will be held against the employer.
If there is evidence that the employee felt pressured to resign, did not understand the consequences, or was presented with a confusing choice that was, in all but name, resignation, a court may find that there was no actual voluntary resignation. In that case, the exit may be treated as a dismissal, and severance may be owed at common law in addition to any minimums under the Employment Standards Code.
Practical advice for employers:
Treat resignations as a legal event, not just a conversation. This means that best practice will be to obtain written confirmation of the resignation, ensuring the language is from the employee. Make sure the employee understands the legal implications of resigning. Avoid pressuring for a resignation when your real intention is to terminate.
2. Employer obligations around retirements
Retirement is emotionally loaded and legally sensitive. Many Alberta employers still treat retirement as something they can steer older employees toward. That approach carries real risk.
Mandatory retirement and human rights
Outside of narrow exceptions where age can be a bona fide occupational requirement, mandatory retirement based solely on age is highly vulnerable to challenge under human rights law. Pressuring an older worker to retire can support both a constructive dismissal claim and a human rights complaint.
When retirement is really a termination
Recent Alberta decisions highlight that when a long service employee is pushed out near the end of their career, the courts may view that as a forced retirement and award substantial common law notice. If you tell an older employee that it is time for them to retire, or you impose changes likely to end their career, a court may treat that as a dismissal and the notice period can be significant.
Best practices for managing retirement discussions
Let employees raise retirement first where possible
You can ask about succession planning and workforce needs, but avoid comments that imply retirement is expected due to age.
Once retirement is raised, clarify the choice
Confirm in writing that the employee has a genuine choice between continued employment and voluntary retirement, and that retirement is not being required.
Give time for independent advice
Provide any retirement package or exit agreement in writing and encourage the employee to get legal and financial advice before signing. Short acceptance deadlines increase the risk that retirement will be viewed as coerced.
Document that retirement was voluntary
Confirm in a simple and respectful letter from the employee that they are voluntarily retiring, setting their last day, and confirming there was no threat or pressure.
3. Forced resignations and constructive dismissal
A resignation is not truly voluntary if the employer has made the work environment so difficult or the role so different that the employee feels they have no real choice but to quit. That scenario is called constructive dismissal.
Constructive dismissal arises when an employer makes a fundamental change to the contract or creates intolerable conditions that a reasonable person would not accept. Common examples include the following:
- Significant pay cuts or removal of core compensation, such as bonuses
- Major demotions or stripping of responsibilities
- Relocations that significantly disrupt the employee’s life
- Toxic work environments driven by harassment or discrimination
- Sudden changes to schedule or duties that are inconsistent with the original role
If the employee resigns because of those changes, Alberta courts can treat the resignation as a termination by the employer, with the same severance and notice obligations as a dismissal without cause.
For employers, this means that trying to push an employee to resign in order to avoid paying severance is likely to backfire.
4. Recent trends in Alberta case law and employer liability
Several trends in Alberta decisions should be on every employer’s radar.
Strong emphasis on clarity
Courts continue to stress that key employment decisions must be clear and unambiguous, including resignations, retirement agreements, and termination clauses. Ambiguity is usually resolved in favour of the employee, especially where an employer is trying to limit common law notice.
Resistance to aggressive policy language
Courts are skeptical of policies that try to rewrite basic concepts like resignation or abandonment in ways that strip employees of common law protections or reduce statutory rights.
Higher notice periods in exceptional cases
The case of Lischuk v. K-Jay Electric Ltd, 2025 ABKB 460, shows that Alberta courts may move beyond the traditional 24-month notice ceiling in extraordinary circumstances, particularly where the exit constitutes a forced retirement for an employee who has devoted basically their entire career to a single employer.
5. Practical tips for Alberta employers
Here are concrete steps you can implement now.
- Build a simple resignation protocol
Require resignations in writing and use a standard confirmation letter that restates the employee’s decision, the last day of work, and that the decision is voluntary. - Train managers on what not to say
Educate leaders on the risks of pressuring employees to resign or retire, and on how to respond when someone says “I quit” in the heat of the moment. - Review policies that treat absence as abandonment or automatic resignation
Have legal counsel review and modernize any policies that treat short absences or non-response as automatic resignation. Those policies may not be enforceable and can increase litigation risk. - Approach retirement as a process rather than an event
Focus on dialogue, options, succession planning, and flexible arrangements where possible, rather than a single meeting in which an older employee is told it is time to go. - Remember that the Employment Standards Code sets the floor, not the ceiling
Statutory notice under the Code is a minimum only. Common-law severance can be significantly higher, especially for long-service employees or when the exit appears to be forced retirement.
Final word
Resignations and retirements are moments of transition, but they are also moments of legal exposure. In Alberta, an unclear resignation, a pressured retirement, or a policy-driven deemed quit can end up in the same place as a wrongful dismissal claim with substantial severance at stake.
If you are an employer facing a tricky resignation or retirement scenario, get legal advice before you act. A brief consultation and a careful paper trail are almost always less expensive than defending a constructive dismissal claim later.
Author: Juliette Omonigho
