Add Comment Question: I am asking on behalf of my live-in boyfriend. We live in BC, he was "let go" almost 2 weeks ago, he works as a manufacturing employee, they produce rebars/steel and he works at the yard and it gets shipped to customers/sites. When he was let go the manager who informed him of his termination said "we'll call you tonight if we want to give your job back or not". It's either he's fired or not... He was working at the same job for over 6 years. He has not been paid severance, it took them a week to pay his last pay although legally he should have been paid 48 hours within his termination. They terminated him out of nowhere, no notice of improvements or probationary periods. They just said that he 'lacks production' and that he needs to pack up and leave. We were calling around to the 'Employment Standard Branch' for BC because we are not sure how to go about something like this. We are not sure what he is entitled for severance pay. The main issue we have is him not being paid out on time, they kept making excuse as to why he's not gotten paid. In addition, it took a long time for us to find out whether he's a union or not and to this day we do not have a confident answer. He pays union dues, so we assume he's unionized. When we finally got a number to his union they said "yes technically we are a union but we are an association" Is there a difference between "association" and "union" and if so, how would we go about this in terms of trying to figure out what he's entitled to? We fear that once he has been paid or they offer his severance pay it's not actually what he's entitled to. Please help! Answer: Thank you for writing to us. If your boyfriend is not in a union (or is not subject to a traditional grievance process) then he is entitled to severance as a result of his wrongful dismissal. To get a sense of what this would amount to, I would encourage you to visit the severance pay calculator our firm has developed (www.SeverancePayCalculator.com). The above aside, it is likely that your boyfriend is subject to an agreement (often referred to as a collective bargaining agreement) where he is required to seek representation by the union or association and file a grievance in order to receive a remedy (i.e. reinstatement or severance). I say this as your boyfriend pays dues and that most associations are subject to an agreed upon grievance procedure. I would recommend that he contact the association and request both representation and that the association immediately file a grievance. Your Comment * Your Email * Your Name * Your City Note, your name, city and email is not displayed on the website. It is used to notify you that we have approved your comment.