Terminated
The COVID-19 pandemic has struck a terrible blow to local and global economies. Many companies are struggling, a lot of them have gone belly up.
About two weeks ago, most of Ontario went into phase 3 of recovery. This means that employers who had temporarily laid off their staff are now able to call them back.
However, a three-month shutdown has not left companies unscathed, and in many cases business has almost ground to a halt. In the case of Mrs. Kicou's shop things are currently running very slow and there are no new customer contracts. Business with US-based clients is now nil.
They could barely call back 30% of their workforce and they made the remaining employees an offer: either 1. they remain on temporary lay-off in the hope that business will pick up and they will eventually be called back, or 2. they accept a termination offer along with a severance package.