Snyk Layoffs: What Ontario Employees Are Owed in Severance
Snyk picked the date on your severance letter; Ontario law did not. The ESA floor is counted in weeks, and the common law usually adds months on top.
Key takeaways
- Check that your benefits continue through the ESA notice weeks. Section 61(1)(b) requires the employer to keep contributing to your benefit plans even when it pays notice as a lump sum.
- Check that ESA severance pay appears as its own line. Section 65(7) makes it payable in addition to notice pay, so one combined figure can hide a shortfall.
- Check for anything taken off your ESA severance pay. If the letter subtracts any amount from the ESA severance pay figure, ask what it is and question it, because s. 65(8) allows only 3 narrow kinds of deduction.
- Check each RSU vesting date that falls inside the notice period you claim. Download your grant schedule before your access to the equity account ends, and list each date with its number of units.
- Check your pay and terms if you are asked to work the notice. Section 60(1)(a) bars the employer from cutting your wage rate or changing any other term of your job during the ESA notice period.
In this article
⚡Quick answer Snyk's layoff took effect in June 2026. If you work in Ontario, you are owed ESA notice or pay in lieu, ESA severance pay if you have 5 years of service and the employer's yearly payroll is $2.5 million or more, and usually months more at common law unless your termination clause fully complies with the ESA.
What did Snyk announce?
| At a glance | What was reported |
|---|---|
| Announced | Not disclosed |
| Effective | June 2026 (Tech.eu) |
| People affected | About 203 employees, out of about 990 at the end of 2025 (Tech.eu), at a developer security company headquartered in Boston (Wikipedia) |
| Share of workforce | About 20% of the global workforce (Tech.eu) |
| Layoff or furlough | Layoff, which the company called a "reduction in force" made "to further increase operational efficiencies and streamline expenses" (Tech.eu) |
| Canadian impact | Not disclosed; the cuts are understood to have hit workers in the US and Israel, with no Canadian figure given (Tech.eu); Snyk has an office in Ottawa (Wikipedia) |
What should you do in the first 48 hours?
- The deadline is the employer's choice, not the law's; ask in writing for more time.
- Do not sign anything, including the release; do not resign or agree that you quit.
- Keep every document: letter, contract, bonus and equity plans, pay stubs, and later the Record of Employment.
- Write down the date, who told you and what was said.
- Apply for EI once your work ends; do not wait for the Record of Employment.
👥If your colleagues got the same letter. Compare notes on what each person was offered, including bonus and equity. Count how many people at your location got a letter in the same 4 weeks, because 50 or more changes the ESA minimum. Don't let a group deadline push you into signing.
Does Ontario law apply if your employer is based in the US?
Yes. If you work in Ontario, Ontario law governs your job, wherever the parent company sits and whichever company in the group, in Canada or abroad, pays you. The ESA sets the minimum, and the common law sets what you are owed above it.
What is the ESA minimum for a layoff this size?
Section 54 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) lets your employer end your job after 3 months of service only with written notice or pay in lieu under s. 61. The mass termination rules cover the group notice in detail.
- Notice, s. 57: 1 week under 1 year of service, 2 weeks from 1 to 3 years, then 1 week per completed year up to 8 weeks at 8 years.
- Group notice, s. 58 and O. Reg. 288/01, s. 3: if 50 or more people are terminated "at the employer's establishment" in the same 4 weeks, notice rises to at least 8 weeks; the count is per location, not global.
- Severance pay, s. 64: with 5 or more years of service you also get severance pay if the employer's total yearly payroll is $2.5 million or more, and at Snyk's size the payroll test is likely met.
- Severance amount, s. 65: 1 week of regular pay per year of service, with partial years counted by the month, up to 26 weeks.
What are you actually owed at common law?
At 10 years, the ESA minimum is 8 weeks of notice plus 10 weeks of severance pay where s. 64 applies; the court median for a manager at 10 years is 12 months. How far above depends on the factors in Bardal v. Globe & Mail Ltd., 1960 CanLII 294 (ON SC): your role, age, years of service and how easily you can find similar work.
See severance for tech workers for how RSUs and options fit into those months.
Run your own numbers
Enter your age, service, role and pay to see where your profile sits in the court range.
What do tech severance packages usually get wrong?
- The package ends vesting on your last day, yet RSUs and options vesting in the notice period can be claimed (O'Reilly v. IMAX Corporation, 2019 ONCA 991; Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd., 2026 ONCA 572, a 2026 Court of Appeal decision voiding clauses that end vesting at termination).
- The package stops the bonus too, but a clause saying you must be employed on the payout date does not, on its own, take away your bonus for the notice period (Paquette v. TeraGo Networks Inc., 2016 ONCA 618).
- If one sentence in the termination section breaks the ESA, often the for cause paragraph, the whole clause fails and you are back to common law notice (Waksdale v. Swegon North America Inc., 2020 ONCA 391).
What should you do before you sign?
The release gives up every claim for good, including the common law months and the equity, and is the one thing you cannot undo, so get the numbers checked before you sign it. Book a free severance review; Mirza Law works on a percentage of what it recovers, with no fee if nothing is recovered.
This article is general information about Ontario law. It is not legal advice about your situation.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the date on the letter passes and I have not signed?
The employer may withdraw the part of the offer above the ESA minimum, which is why the extension request goes in writing before the date. It cannot withdraw the ESA minimum itself, which is owed whether or not you sign, and with no release signed your common law claim stays open.
Is a package above the ESA minimum enough?
Not by itself. A package can beat the ESA weeks and still fall months short of common law notice, so measure the offer in months against the court ranges for your profile. Count bonus, equity and benefits over those months too, not only base pay.
How is unvested equity valued if the shares are not publicly traded?
There is no market price, so start with the prices the company has put on its own shares: the figure in your grant agreement, any value shown in your equity account and any offer to buy shares from staff. Save each one with its date. Which price applies is open to argument, so do not accept a value from the employer without checking it.
How many years of service do I need for ESA severance pay?
Five, counting all your time with the employer. Section 65(2) includes time that was not continuous or not active, such as an earlier period of employment with the same employer or a leave. Below 5 years there is no ESA severance pay, though s. 57 notice and any common law claim still apply.
Daniel Carter
Legal Writer, Mirza Law
Daniel Carter is a legal writer at Mirza Law in Toronto. He writes about layoffs, employment contracts, and the steps to take before you sign anything from your employer.
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