I am being forced to quit. Am I entitled to compensation?
If an employee has voluntarily resigned, then no, the employee is not entitled to any compensation or a severance package. They are entitled only to their outstanding wages and vacation pay accrued to their last day of work.
That said, if the employer, through its actions, is forcing an employee to quit, then the resignation is not considered voluntary, and the employee may be entitled to constructive dismissal damages.
Even though the employer has not formally terminated the employee, through its actions, it has repudiated the employment contract and the employee is entitled to treat the relationship at its end and is entitled to a severance package as though the employer terminated the employment relationship.
There could be a variety of scenarios in which an employer is forcing an employee to resign. A common example is when a manager may be sidelining an employee or taking away significant responsibilities, demoting the employee or making other significant changes that the employee does not agree with. A manager may be critiquing the employee’s performance in a manner that is objectively unreasonable or humiliating in nature.
Everyone has a different subjective threshold about what they consider to be unfair or demeaning treatment or a significant change in the employment relationship. The test for a constructive dismissal is an objective one, meaning would a reasonable objective person standing in the shoes of the employee consider the employer to have repudiated the employment relationship.