Employment Standards

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Employment Standards

Ministry of Human Services

Act: Employment Standards Code
Regulation: Employment Standards Regulation

To Whom Does This Apply?

Employers and Employees. Provincial labour laws, which fall under Alberta Employment Standards jurisdiction, apply to approximately 90 per cent of employees in Alberta.

For those employed in one of the following industries, employment standards issues fall under federal jurisdiction. Employers and employees involved in federal works, undertakings and businesses, known as federal jurisdiction.

These are businesses and organizations whose main activities include:

railways, road transport, telephone, telegraph, and cable systems, pipelines, canals, ferries, tunnels, and bridges, shipping and shipping services that extend beyond the border of a province or Canada;
air transport, aircraft operations, and aerodromes;
radio and television broadcasting, including cablevision;
banks;
businesses dealing with the protection and preservation of fisheries as a natural resource;
many First Nation activities;
most grain elevators, flour and seed mill, feed warehouses and grain-seed cleaning plants;
uranium mining and processing; and
most federal Crown corporations, such as Canada Post Corporation and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

Note: If you are employed in or operate an undertaking other than described above, the following Employment Standards apply.

Under the Code, an employer is “a person who employs an employee”. An employee is defined as “an individual employed to do work who receives or is entitled to wages”. The Code applies only to employees and employers. Self-employed workers are not covered by the Code, unless they are also employers, in which case the Code will protect the employees that they hire.

Summary

Employment Standards provides information and education for both employers and employees on minimum standards of employment. Employment Standards receives and investigates complaints when employees cannot resolve their differences with employers. Employment Standards reviews applications and requests from employers, employees and industry representatives for variances from legislation and regulation.

Alberta's Employment Standards Code describes the minimum rights and obligations of employers and employees in a number of areas. These areas include rights and obligations related to payment of wages, hours of work and overtime pay, vacations and vacation pay, general holidays and general holiday pay, termination of employment and parental benefits. Employers are able to offer their employees greater benefits which go beyond the minimum requirements.

MINIMUM WAGE
Alberta's minimum wage increased to $9.40 per hour on September 1, 2011.

Most Alberta employers must pay their employees, including students and youth, at least the minimum wage. Alberta's Employment Standards Regulation sets out three minimum wage rates:

an hourly minimum wage for most employees;
a weekly minimum wage for many salespersons and professionals; and
a monthly minimum wage for domestic employees

Weekly Minimum Wage for Salespersons and Professionals

Many salespersons and professionals are entitled to a weekly minimum wage instead of the hourly minimum wage. Alberta's minimum weekly wage for salespersons and professionals increases to $376 per week on September 1, 2011.

The Employment Standards Regulation lists the types of salespersons and professionals who are entitled to the weekly minimum wage.

Monthly Minimum Wage for Domestic Employees

An employee who is employed to do domestic work in a private dwelling and who lives primarily in his or her employer's home is called a "domestic employee." Domestic employees are entitled to a monthly minimum wage instead of the hourly minimum wage above. Alberta's minimum monthly wage for domestic employees increases to $1791 per month on September 1, 2011.

Most employees are entitled to a minimum of three hours' pay at least the minimum wage, even if they are employed for fewer than three consecutive hours.

Some employees are subject to a special rule where they are entitled to a minimum of 2 hours' pay at least the minimum wage, even if they are employed for fewer than 2 consecutive hours. These employees include:

part-time employees working in recreation or athletic programs operated by a municipality, Métis settlement or non-profit community service organization;
school bus drivers; and
12, 13, and 14 year-olds who are working on school days.

BOARD AND LODGING DEDUCTIONS

When an employer provides an employee with a place to stay, the employer can reduce the employee's wages below the minimum wage by a maximum of:

$4.08 for each day that the employer provides the employee with a place to stay; and
$3.09 for each meal consumed by the employee.

Hours of Work, Rest Periods & Days of Work

Employees who are exempt from hours of work, rest periods and days of rest

employees on a farm or a ranch
various types of salespersons
professionals such as real estate brokers, and licensed insurance and securities salespersons
professions such as architects, engineers, lawyers, psychologists and information systems professionals
managers, supervisors and those employed in a confidential capacity
licensed land agents
instructors or counsellors at a non-profit educational or recreational camp
extras in a film or video production
employees covered by other Acts (academic staff)
municipal police officers

Maximum Daily Hours

An employee's work hours must fall within a 12-hour period in a workday unless an unforeseeable emergency occurs, or the Director of Employment Standards issues a permit authorizing extended hours of work. This means, for example, that an employee who begins work at 8 a.m. cannot work past 8 p.m.

Shift Changes and Rest Between Shifts

An employee must be notified in writing about a shift change 24 hours beforehand. Employees must get at least eight hours rest between shifts.

Daily Rest Periods

During each shift in excess of five consecutive hours of work, an employee is entitled to at least a one-half hour break, except where it is unreasonable or impossible. The break can be paid, or unpaid, at the employer's discretion.

This means that where a shift is less than 5 hours in length the employer is not obliged to provide a rest period. Where the shift is longer than 5 hours (e.g. 8 or 9 hours) the obligation of the employer is to provide at least 30 minutes of break time sometime during the shift. The 30 minutes can be taken in one unbroken period but may be provided as two 15-minute or three 10-minute breaks.

This, of course, is the minimum standard, and in practice for a full day shift the amount of break time provided is frequently more than the specified minimum.

Weekly Rest Days

An employer must give an employee:

one day of rest each week
two consecutive days of rest in each period of two consecutive weeks
three consecutive days of rest in each period of three consecutive weeks
four consecutive days of rest in each period of four consecutive weeks.

After 24 consecutive days of work, employees must be provided with at least four consecutive days of rest.

Compressed Work Week

A compressed work week is a scheduling of hours of work that:

has employees working longer hours each day, and
is balanced by having employees working fewer days each week.

The arrangement must meet the following criteria:

Employees may not be scheduled to work longer than 12 hours per day.
Hours worked in excess of the scheduled daily hours, and/or in excess of 44 hours per week, are overtime hours. (Exceptions may apply where different industry hours are set by the Employment Standards Regulation.)
Where the compressed work week is part of a multi-week cycle the average weekly hours in the schedule cannot exceed 44.

A compressed work week can be implemented by an employer at any time by preparing a schedule that meets the required criteria for a compressed work week arrangement. No permission from Employment Standards is required.

Overtime & Overtime Pay

Employees who are exempt from overtime and overtime pay

employees on a farm or a ranch
domestic employees
various types of salespersons
professionals such as real estate brokers, and licensed insurance and securities salespersons
professions such as architects, engineers, lawyers, psychologists and information systems professionals
managers, supervisors and those employed in a confidential capacity
licensed land agents
instructors or counsellors at a non-profit educational or recreational camp
extras in a film or video production
employees covered by other Acts (academic staff)
municipal police officers

What is Overtime?

Except as noted below, overtime is all hours worked in excess of:

eight hours a day, or
44 hours a week.

Overtime hours are to be calculated both on a daily and on a weekly basis. The higher of the two numbers is overtime hours worked in the week.

All employees, including those who are paid a weekly, monthly, or annual salary, must be paid overtime pay for overtime hours they work.

Industries with Different Overtime Rules

A number of industries and occupations are subject to variations in daily and weekly hours worked before overtime is payable.

Vacations & Vacation Pay

Employees who are exempt from vacations and vacation pay

employees on a farm or a ranch
salespersons working mainly away from the employer's premises who solicit orders for later delivery
professionals such as real estate brokers, and licensed insurance and securities salespersons
extras in a film or video production
employees covered by other Acts (academic staff)
municipal police officers

Basic Vacation Pay Entitlement

The entitlement to vacations and vacation pay are intended to ensure that employees annually have a rest from work without loss of income.

The basic entitlement to annual vacations is as follows:

after one year of employment, employees are entitled to two weeks vacation with pay,
after five years, employees are entitled to three weeks vacation with pay.

Therefore, employees are entitled to take two weeks' vacation in each year from the second to the fifth year of employment, and each year after the fifth anniversary they are entitled to three weeks paid vacation.

Vacations must be taken sometime in the 12 months after the employee becomes entitled to the vacation.

Vacations must be given in one unbroken period unless the employee requests to take their vacations in shorter periods. This is permissible so long as those periods are at least one day long.

If a mutually acceptable time for the employee's vacation cannot be found, the employer can decide on the time. However, the employee must receive at least two weeks notice in writing of the start date of their vacation. The employee must take their vacation at that time.

General Holidays and General Holiday Pay

Employees who are exempt from general holidays and general holiday pay

employees on a farm or a ranch
salespersons who mainly work outside the employer's place of business
various other types of salespersons
professionals such as real estate brokers, and licensed insurance and securities salespersons
instructors or counsellors at a non-profit educational or recreational camp
extras in a film or video production
employees covered by other Acts (academic staff)
municipal police officers

More about General Holidays in Alberta

Termination of Employment

Right to Terminate

As a general principle employees have a right to terminate their employment with an employer and employers have the right to terminate the employment of employees. These rights, however, come with responsibilities. The main responsibility in most cases is to provide notice of intention to terminate. The length of such notice is normally dependent on the duration of the employment with the employer.

Where an employer fails to give notice or to give adequate notice, the remedy will be pay for the period of notice that should have been given. Employees too, have a responsibility to provide notice, but failure to do so carries different consequences.

In Alberta, employment standards legislation (the Employment Standards Code) sets out minimum responsibilities of employers and employees when employment is terminated, including situations where notice is not required. Enforcement of the minimum standards, where these are breached, is through the involvement of Employment Standards.

Another avenue available to employees, if insufficient notice is provided, is to sue the employer. Employment Standards has no involvement in this process, and those contemplating such action are advised to obtain legal advice.

Minimum Employment Standards Notice Requirements

Neither the employer nor employee has a statutory obligation to give notice of termination during the first three months of employment. This is consistent with industry practice that generally treats the first three months of employment as a probationary period.

Employer Initiates Termination

The length of notice an employer is required to give depends on the duration of employment and must be in writing. The minimum notice requirements that employers must give are:

one week - for employment of more than three months, but less than two years
two weeks - for employment of two years, but less than four years,
four weeks - for employment of four years, but less than six years,
five weeks - for employment of six years, but less than eight years,
six weeks - for employment of eight years, but less than 10 years, and
eight weeks - for employment of 10 years or more.

An employer may choose to give pay for the required notice period instead of providing notice. A combination of written notice and pay in lieu of notice (termination pay) is also acceptable.

The employer must pay all wages, overtime, general holiday pay and vacation pay due the employee within three days following termination of employment.

The Employment Standards Code prohibits an employer from dismissing an employee because the employee's wages are garnisheed or when that employee is on maternity or parental leave (some exceptions apply - see Maternity & Parental Leave).

The major exception is where the dismissal is in violation of human rights legislation. Go to: www.albertahumanrights.ab.ca/default.asp for more information.Employee Initiates Termination

The length of notice an employee is required to give also depends on the duration of employment and should be in writing. The minimum notice requirements that employees are required to provide are:

one week - for employment of more than three months, but less than two years
two weeks - for employment of two years or more.

If an employee gives proper notice, the employer must pay all earnings to the employee within three days following termination of employment.

If an employee quits without proper notice all wages, overtime, holiday and vacation pay is due to the employee within 10 days after the date on which the notice would have expired if it had been given

(Note: there are some exceptions to the above provisions. Please contact an Employment Standards office for more information.)

Maternity & Parental Leave

What are the Employee Entitlements?

Maternity and parental leave are employee entitlements set out in the Employment Standards Code (Part 2, Division 7). The legislation entitles employees, who qualify, to a period of leave without pay at the end of which they must be reinstated in their old or equivalent job. During maternity and parental leave employees may be entitled to maternity and parental benefits under the federal Employment Insurance Program .

Alberta employees are entitled to up to one-year of unpaid, job-protected leave in the event of the birth and up to 37 weeks on the adoption of a child.

Birth mothers can take up to 52 consecutive weeks of unpaid job-protected leave. This is made up of 15 weeks maternity leave and 37 weeks parental leave.
Fathers and/or adoptive parents are eligible for up to 37 consecutive weeks of unpaid, job-protected parental leave. Adoptive parents can take parental leave regardless of the age of the adopted child.

Parental leave may be taken by one parent or shared between two parents but the total combined leave cannot exceed 37 weeks.

More about Maternity and Parental Leave

When and How Must Employees be Paid?

Employees must be paid at least once per month. Most employers establish pay periods of a week, two weeks or a month. Employees must be paid within 10 days after the end of each pay period.

Employees may be paid in cash, by cheque or money order or by direct deposit, into an account of an employee's choice, in any recognized financial institution.

If an employer intends to reduce an employee's wage rate, overtime rate, general holiday pay, vacation pay or termination pay, the employee must be notified before the start of the pay period in which the reduction is to take effect. However, these rates must always be at least the minimum required by the legislated standards.

Deductions from Employee Earnings

The Employment Standards Code allows certain deductions to be made from employee earnings. These include legal deductions for Income Tax, Canada Pension Plan, Employment Insurance and Alberta Health Care premiums, as well as deductions resulting from a judgement or order of a court.

If an employer wants to make other deductions, written permission must first be obtained from the employee. Examples include deductions for company pension plans, dental plans, personal charges to company credit cards, and so on. Usually these deductions are discussed and permissions are provided before the employee starts their job.

There are some deductions that are not allowed, even with a written authorization from the employee. You cannot take deductions for faulty workmanship. Also, you may not deduct for cash shortages or loss of property where more than one person has access to the cash or property.

Statement of Employee Earnings

At the end of each pay period, the employer must provide a written statement to each employee showing:

regular and overtime hours of work
wage rate and overtime rate
earnings paid that show each component separately
deductions from earnings and the reason for each deduction
time off in lieu of payment of overtime
statement period.

A statement of earnings is an important document. To avoid disagreements later on, employees should check the accuracy of their statements as soon as they get them.

Employment Records

Under the Code employers are responsible for:

• Keeping accurate employment records; and

• Providing employees with a statement of earnings (pay stub)

The Code requires employers to keep accurate and current employment records for each of

their employees.

An employer must keep records for at least three years from the date each record is made.

Employees Under Age 18

Employees under age 18 and their employers share rights and responsibilities under Alberta's employment standards and occupational health and safety laws.

There are also special rules that apply to:

adolescents (age 12, 13, and 14); and
young persons (age 15, 16, and 17).

Employment Standards has no authority to request a Record of Employment (ROE) (separation slip) from an employer. That document is under the federal jurisdiction of Service Canada, www.servicecanada.gc.ca.

Publications
Copies of the Employment Standards Code and Regulation may be purchased from: Queen's Printer Bookstores. http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca

For further information on the Employment Standards Code and Regulation, or for general Employment Standards information, please contact your local Employment Standards office. You can also access our province-wide Employment Standards information line by dialing toll-free 1-877-427-3731.

Additional information, Fact Sheets, and FAQ's can be obtained at the Employment Standards website.