Uber Layoffs: What Ontario Employees Are Owed in Severance
The deadline on an Uber severance package is the company's choice, not the law's. Ontario's ESA floor is counted in weeks; the common law usually adds months.
Key takeaways
- Check your years of service against the 5 year line. Below it there is no ESA severance pay, only notice weeks; your common law claim does not depend on the 5 year line.
- Check your equity statement for vest dates. List every grant that would have vested in the months after your last day; those are the figures to put to Uber.
- Check the end date of your health and dental coverage. If it stops before your ESA notice weeks run out, that is a shortfall to raise in writing.
- Check the contract you signed when you started. Bring that version to the review, not only the latest one, because the termination clause may differ.
- Check how the package figure was calculated. Ask Uber in writing which pay items, start date and number of weeks it used.
In this article
⚡Quick answer. If you work in Ontario and lost your job in Uber's restructuring, Ontario law sets what you are owed. That means ESA notice, severance pay if you have 5 or more years, and common law notice unless a valid termination clause in your contract limits you to the ESA minimum.
What did Uber announce?
| At a glance | What has been reported |
|---|---|
| Announced | 2 September 2026 |
| Effective | Not disclosed |
| People affected | About 3,300 (Tech Times) |
| Share of workforce | About 10% (Tech Times) |
| Layoff or furlough | Layoff, which Uber called a restructuring to "simplify its organization" (TokenPost) |
| Canadian impact | Not disclosed; Uber is based in San Francisco and operates in about 70 countries (Wikipedia) |
What should you do in the first 48 hours?
- Ask in writing for more time.
- Sign nothing, including the release; do not resign or agree to call it a resignation.
- Save what you can; ask HR in writing for your contract, plan documents and pay stubs.
- Note the date, who told you and what was said.
- Apply for EI as soon as your last day passes, without waiting for the Record of Employment, because applying more than 4 weeks late can cost benefits.
👥If your colleagues got the same letter. Compare notes on what each person was offered; the differences show what can move. Count how many people at your location got a letter in the same 4 weeks, and note the number and the date on each letter. Do not sign together on the employer's timetable, and keep the letters.
Does Ontario law apply if your employer is American?
Yes. Section 3(1) of the Employment Standards Act applies the ESA when your "work is to be performed in Ontario", including from a home office here, wherever the parent company sits and whichever entity pays you. The US WARN Act is a US statute and gives an Ontario employee nothing, even if your manager or payroll sits in the US; the ESA and the common law set what you are owed.
What is the ESA minimum for a layoff this size?
Under s. 57, notice depends on years of service: 1 week under a year, 2 weeks from 1 to 3 years, then 1 more week per completed year up to 8 weeks at 8 years. These minimums apply once you have 3 months of service (s. 54).
Under the mass termination rules in s. 58, if 50 or more people at your location lose their jobs within 4 weeks, the minimum notice rises to between 8 and 16 weeks depending on how many (O. Reg. 288/01, s. 3). The count is per location, not global.
Under s. 64, severance pay is owed if you have 5 or more years and the employer's payroll is $2.5 million or more, which an employer of Uber's size likely meets.
Under s. 65, severance pay is 1 week of regular wages per year of service, with partial years counted by month, capped at 26 weeks; at 6 years and 4 months, that is about 6.33 weeks of pay. It is paid "in addition to any other amount" owed under the ESA, so it sits on top of your notice. New earnings never reduce ESA notice or severance pay.
What are you actually owed at common law?
The first package is usually built on the ESA floor, and the common law usually sits well above it. How far above comes from the factors in Bardal v. Globe & Mail Ltd., 1960 CanLII 294 (ON SC): your age, years of service, the character of your role and how hard similar work is to find.
A new job reduces the common law amount, though pay from a substantially lesser job during the common law notice period may not be deducted (Brake v. PJ-M2R Restaurant Inc., 2017 ONCA 402).
Where does your package sit?
Enter your age, years of service, role and pay to see how your offer compares with Ontario decisions.
What do tech severance packages usually get wrong?
- Wigdor v. Facebook Canada Ltd., 2026 ONCA 572, a recent August 2026 Court of Appeal decision, voided clauses that end RSU vesting on termination during the ESA notice weeks. Claim the RSUs that would have vested in your notice period (O'Reilly v. IMAX Corporation, 2019 ONCA 991); severance for tech workers covers how they are valued.
- A bonus you would have earned during the notice period is owed unless the plan clearly removes it, and an "active employment" condition alone does not (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 is the one thing you cannot undo once signed, so get the numbers checked against the ESA floor and the common law range for your profile before you sign it. Book a free severance review; the firm 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.
How we can help
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the deadline passes and I have not signed?
Your ESA notice and severance pay are still owed, because the Act does not make them depend on signing a release. An offer above that floor can be withdrawn, but your common law claim does not disappear with it.
I was cut off today; what must Uber keep paying for my ESA notice weeks?
Under s. 61, Uber must pay you a lump sum equal to at least your regular wages for each of your ESA notice weeks. It must also keep making your benefit plan contributions for those same weeks, as if you were still employed.
Does an earlier stint at Uber count toward my years of service?
For ESA severance pay, yes. Section 65(2) counts all time in the employer's employ, "whether or not continuous and whether or not active", both for the 5 year test and for the amount.
Can I be asked to give back the laptop or repay my signing bonus?
The laptop and other equipment belong to the employer, so return them when asked and keep a written record of the handover. Whether you must repay a signing bonus turns on the wording of your offer letter or contract, including whether its repayment term covers being let go or only quitting.
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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