I recently had a major client terminate their Service Level Agreement (SLA) with my company in Canada, and I'm trying to assess what rights as a contractor I have since my fixed term SLA has what appear to be contradictory conditions.
My SLA contract with them, which lasted just for under a year, specifies it's a fixed term contract:
This contract will be in effect until the end of the current financial year, February 29, 2016. It is anticipated that this contract will be renewed on an annual basis subject to agreement by both parties.
Key considerations will be delivery of satisfactory performance by XXX [me] and agreement with regards to compensation terms.
In preparation for signing a new contract YYY's Executive Director [the client] will meet with xxx's principal [me] to review the previous year’s performance and to discuss future compensation terms.
However, this fixed term contract also has a provision that says:
Contract Commencement, Revision & Termination
The term of this contract commences upon signing by both parties. Regardless of the contract end date, at any time either party has the right to give notice to end this contract 90 days from the date of notice. During the notice period XXX will be expected to deliver IT services and will continue to be paid as per the terms of this contract.
I was served notice to stop working on the project on February 8th, just weeks before the contract's expiry. I was told they would pay me out for all of February (the last month of the contract), and that in addition to this, they would also pay me for an extra month if I agree to sign a two year non-solicitation agreement, a non-disclosure agreement and cooperate with a technical transition.
I did not receive a performance review, though I did receive promises to discuss negotiating a new contract.
However, because the notice period makes mention of the 90 days of notice, I sense that I should be entitled to at least 3 months of notice payout for the contract termination.
Based on the wording of this fixed term contract, do I have a legal right to demand 90 days of notice pay, even though my contract's termination is happening at the end its fixed term?
UPDATE: Turns out they want me to sign a non-solicitation agreement, so I think the extra month of compensation pay is being offered because in Canada non-solicitation agreements are not enforceable unless something of value is provided in exchange for signing one.