Saskatchewan court enforces 12-month golden parachute despite employee landing better job
A Regina students' union owes a fired manager 12 months' pay plus $10,000 after Justice M.J. Morris rejected shifting cause grounds.
Haris Khan worked as Director of Programs and Public Relations at the Students' Union of the University of Regina from March 20, 2023, until his dismissal on February 22, 2024. The Students' Union, known as URSU, fired Khan for cause, citing unexcused absences on February 13, 15 and 16, 2024, and characterizing his pay during those days as "time theft."
Khan said he had a standing arrangement with the former general manager to work from home Fridays as a religious accommodation. He had also emailed acting general manager Tejas Patel on February 15 asking to work from home during the University of Regina's reading week, and was waiting for a response when the termination letter arrived.
As the case progressed, URSU's grounds expanded. The Statement of Defence added performance concerns and remote work policy breaches. By August 2025, a sworn affidavit alleged Khan had been absent for 10 consecutive days before termination. Justice Morris wrote: "It is curious that somehow 18 months after the Termination Letter, Mr. Muhammad would have been in a better position to ascertain when Mr. Khan was absent from the office than those who prepared the Termination Letter, given it was prepared the week after Mr. Khan was alleged to have been absent from the office."
A severance clause with no escape hatch
Khan's employment contract contained a clause that proved decisive: "Upon termination, you will receive 12 months’ notice or severance." URSU argued this required only 12 months' notice, with damages reduced by what Khan earned elsewhere. Khan obtained more lucrative employment with the Government of Saskatchewan in July 2024 and later moved to Houston for another position.
Justice Morris read the clause as a guaranteed payment, not a notice-period calculation subject to mitigation. He found URSU and Khan had negotiated what he called a "rich golden parachute," meaning URSU had to pay 12 months' severance regardless of what Khan earned elsewhere.
"While URSU may have made a bad bargain, it is stuck with it," Justice Morris wrote. The court ordered URSU to pay damages equivalent to $77,380, representing Khan's $73,000 salary plus a $4,380 retirement plan contribution, less the two weeks' wages he had already received through a Saskatchewan Employment Act assessment.
Degrading remarks raise the bill
On top of the contractual severance, Justice Morris awarded $10,000 in moral damages. He found URSU failed to conduct a reasonable investigation into the absenteeism concerns, failed to pay the statutory minimum until ordered to, and made degrading remarks about Khan to the employment standards officer.
Khan pointed to URSU's submissions to the officer, which he described as insulting, including a suggestion he had potential to make a career in tragedy fiction writing. URSU's current general manager also told the University of Regina student newspaper, the Carillon, that the five or six employees fired around the same time were terminated for "really grave misconducts that we had to address."
The court rejected URSU's just cause arguments outright. "I am not satisfied that the behaviour of Mr. Khan was such that the employment relationship between him and URSU could no longer viably exist," Justice Morris concluded. Costs were reserved for written submissions.
See Khan v Students’ Union of the University of Regina Inc., 2026 SKKB 94
