What does duty to mitigate mean?
The heavy burden that is placed on employers to treat these employees with fairness is counterbalanced by the employee’s duty to mitigate, or simply put: to exercise diligent efforts to search for employment. In Canada an Employer can attempt to argue that an Employee has lost his/her right to income protection by proving that the Employee has failed in this duty. However, there is a heavy burden: an employee must be shown to have been unreasonable in all respects relating to the job search: commonly there is an attempt to demonstrate that the job search is too narrow in space and income requirements. This is a difficult strategy especially if the employee can show that he /she has considered all reasonable opportunities/job resources and is willing to relocate. The argument is especially doomed to failure if the Employee can show that he has not received the assistance of a positive reference letter or outplacement counseling from the employer who is generally seen to be trying to ben
