HR glossary · Ending employment and discipline

Bardal factors

The Bardal factors are what Canadian courts weigh to set reasonable notice: the job, length of service, age and the chance of finding similar work.

Also called: Bardal test, reasonable notice factors

What bardal factors means

The Bardal factors are the main considerations Canadian courts use to decide how much reasonable notice, at common law, a dismissed employee should have received. They take their name from the case Bardal v. Globe and Mail, and the Supreme Court of Canada has quoted and applied them many times since.

For an employer, they explain why two employees with the same length of service can be owed very different amounts, and why no simple formula gives a reliable answer.

How it works

The four classic factors are the character of the employment, the length of service, the age of the employee, and the availability of similar employment, having regard to the employee's experience, training and qualifications. Together they aim to estimate how long it should reasonably take this person to find comparable work.

Character of employment looks at the level and nature of the job. A senior or specialized role can take longer to replace than a general one. Length of service rewards longer tenure. Age matters because older workers can face a harder search. Availability of similar employment considers the job market for someone with this person's skills in their area.

The list is not closed. In Wallace v. United Grain Growers (1997), the Supreme Court of Canada said the factors are not exhaustive and that courts have added others. In Honda Canada Inc. v. Keays, the Court said no one factor should be given disproportionate weight and that there can be no catalogue of what is reasonable notice for particular kinds of jobs. Wallace also said the factors relate to the employee's prospects of re-employment, which keeps them separate from claims about how a dismissal was handled.

Practical lessons for employers: do not rely on a rule of thumb, because courts do not use one. Keep accurate records of each person's start date, role and duties, since those feed directly into the factors. And if you want more certainty, use a clear written contract that sets notice, reviewed by a lawyer, while never going below your province's employment standards minimum.

Is it the same in every province?

The Bardal factors are part of the common law and are applied by courts in every province and territory outside Quebec. Quebec is a civil law province, and its Civil Code sets its own rule on notice.

Example: Two cooks, two different answers

A Victoria restaurant group with 30 staff closes one kitchen and lets two cooks go without cause. Both have 6 years' service. One is 26, a line cook with skills in high demand across the city. The other is 61, a specialized pastry chef in a market with few comparable jobs.

Under the Bardal factors, a court would probably find the pastry chef needed more time to find similar work, so her reasonable notice could be longer even though service is identical. The owner gets advice for each person separately instead of offering the same package to both.

Employee records in the Staffkin HR Suite

Staffkin HR Suite employee records keep each person's start date, job history and documents in one profile, which are the facts the Bardal factors rely on.

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Questions about bardal factors

What are the four Bardal factors?

The character of the employment, length of service, the employee's age, and the availability of similar employment given their experience, training and qualifications.

Is there a formula for reasonable notice in Canada?

No. Courts weigh the Bardal factors and other circumstances case by case, and the Supreme Court of Canada has said no one factor should dominate.

Do the Bardal factors apply in Quebec?

Quebec uses its Civil Code instead of the common law, so the Bardal case does not govern there. Check Quebec's rules on notice separately.

Official sources

General information for Canadian employers, not legal advice. Rules differ by province and territory and change over time, so check with your provincial employment standards office (or the federal Labour Program if you are federally regulated) before you rely on it. See employment standards by province.

Checked against official sources on 4 November 2026.