From the 3-hour minimum rule to vacation entitlements for part-time employees (yes, you read that right!) how well do you know your rights rights at work? The Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta has put together this article with 10 commonly overlooked rights for Alberta workers.

We are lucky to have laws in Alberta that protect us at work. There are many different laws but the big ones are:

• Employment Standards Code
• Employment Standards Regulation
• Occupational Health and Safety Act
• Occupational Health and Safety Regulation
• Occupational Health and Safety Code
• Alberta Human Rights Act

Unfortunately, many people don’t realize the protections they have under the law. Here are some of the rights you might not know you have.

1. Your boss has to pay you for at least 3 hours of work – even if you were sent home early because there was not enough work to do.

If you worked for less than three hours, your employer must pay you at least minimum wage for three of hours of work (unless an exception applies – see below). A meal break of one hour or less is not part of the 3 consecutive hours of work. For example, if you work from 6pm to 9:30pm and take a one hour dinner break from 7pm to 8pm, your employer has to pay you for 3 hours even though you only worked for 2.5 hours.

If you worked for three hours or more, your employer must pay you for what you worked.

In some jobs, if you work less than 2 hours, your employer only has to pay for 2 hours of work. Those jobs are:

• part-time employees in recreational or athletic programs run by a city, town, Métis settlement or a not-for-profit community service organization;
• school bus drivers;
• students 13, 14, or 15 years of age employed when the student is required to attend school.

2. You have the right to (and should) refuse any work that is unsafe.

Yes! It is your right to refuse work that is a threat to you or your co-workers’ safety and is beyond what is normal for your job. The Occupational Health and Safety Act protects you from getting in trouble from your boss if you refuse unsafe work.

3. Your boss can’t take money from your pay cheque for broken items or shortages at the cash register.

Your boss is never allowed to deduct from your wages for broken items, faulty workmanship or shortages in the cash register (if anyone else had access to it). But… these rules do not apply to your tips.

For example, if you dropped a glass at work, your boss cannot take money from your wages to buy a new one. Your boss could, however, take money from your tips that evening to cover the cost of the glass.

Read the full article at cplea.ca