Tag Archives: Wages

Photo of a person's hand with medium skin-ton and a pink sleeve visible as they deposit a ballot into the slot on the top of a white cardboard box.

Your Right to Vote: Important information for Alberta Workers

With Canada facing so many critical challenges, April 28 may be one of our country’s most important federal elections. If you’ve already had the chance to cast your vote in the advance polls, you’re among 7.3 million other Canadians who set a new record for advance voter turnout. For workers who have opted to wait until election day to vote—it’s your right to do so—we’ve got a run-down of everything you need to know so you can cast your ballot and ensure that your voice is heard.

Workers are entitled to 3 consecutive hours for voting

If you are scheduled to work on Monday, April 28, during the times that polls are open in your area, you must have at least three consecutive hours to vote (Canada Elections Act, Part 8, subsection 132). In Alberta, the polls open at 7:30 AM and close at 7:30 PM.

Let’s say you’ve been scheduled to work from 9 AM to 5 PM. This means that before work you only have 1.5 hours to vote, and after work, you only have 2.5 hours to vote, which is not enough time.

Image of a one-day calendar with voting hours labelled between 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM,scheduled work hours labelled between 9 AM and 5 PM and three hour time-slots overlapping on top of the scheduled work hours to demonstrate how much time an employee would be entitled to for voting at the start (1.5 hours) or end of their shift (30 minutes).

In this case, your employer must provide you with time off work to vote. That might look like coming in to work late at 10:30 AM, or leaving early at 4:30 PM, depending on what your employer decides will work best. Workers do not get to decide when they get take time off to vote during the day—this decision is up to the employer. 

If your work hours prevent you from having three consecutive hours to vote, it’s a good idea to discuss this with your employer before election day to ensure that you are both on the same page.

Pay deductions, penalizing employees and prohibiting employees from voting is not permitted

If you need to take time off from work to allow for three consecutive hours to vote, your boss is not permitted to deduct your pay. Employers are required to pay you the same amount that you would have made during your scheduled hours.

Employers are not permitted to penalize workers in other ways (for example, suspension or termination) if they take time off work to allow for three consecutive hours to exercise their right to vote. 

Finally, employers are not permitted to attempt to stop their workers from voting in elections by using their influence, through intimidation, or any other means.

(These restrictions are outlined in the Canada Elections Act, Part 8, subsections 133 and 134).

Exception for transportation industry

There is an exception to the rules around taking time off to vote for workers in the transportation industry. Employers in the transportation industry do not have an obligation to provide their workers with 3 consecutive hours to vote if the following four conditions are met, as outlined by Elections Canada:

  • the employer is a company that transports goods or passengers by land, air or water;
  • the employee is employed outside of his or her polling division;
  • the employee is employed in the operation of a means of transportation; and
  • the time off cannot be allowed without interfering with the transportation service.

What can workers do if their employer doesn’t respect their voting rights?

If your employer refused to allow you time off to allow for 3 consecutive voting hours on election day, or if your employer penalised you or deducted your pay for taking time off work to vote, it can be helpful to keep a record of what happened. This might look like paystubs, emails or text message records to or from your employer, or writing down a summary of a discussion with your employer after it occurred.

If your employer has interfered with your right to vote, penalised you for voting, or deducted your pay for taking time off work to vote, you have the option to make a complaint to the Commissioner for Canada Elections using this online form. You can read the complaint process in full prior to submitting a complaint. Here are some tips for filling out the complaint form:

  1. On the first question of the complaint form, select: “To report a potential contravention” as the reason for contacting the Commissioner for Canada Elections.
An image of the online complaint form with the heading: Commissioner of Canada Elections - Online Form, with a progress bar set at 0%. It displays the question: "Why are you contacting us today? (required)" . The selected option from the drop-down menu diplays: "To report a potential contravention".

  1. For the second question, select “Time off work to vote” as the subject of your question or complaint.
An image of the online complaint form with the heading: Commissioner of Canada Elections - Online Form, with a progress bar set at 20%. It displays the question: "Please select the subject of your question or complaint (required)" The selected option from the drop-down menu diplays: "Time off work to vote"

  1. To complete the form, fill in all other required information and provide a detailed description of how your employer prevented you from having 3 consecutive hours to vote, how they penalised you, or how they deducted pay for voting.

Did you know?
Election day falls on April 28, the National Day of Mourning for workers who lost their lives at work, were injured or became ill because of their job. Learn more about the National Day of Mourning by visiting the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety.

5 essential rules Alberta workers need to know

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Whether you’ve been working for the last 20 years or you are starting your first job, something that many workers overlook are the laws that govern their work and their employers. In Alberta, these laws are referred to as Alberta Employment Standards, and they apply to most employees in the province. The only problem is Employment Standards — also known as pages and pages of rules pertaining to work in the province — can be a very long read.

To save you some of your well-earned time off, we’ve identified some of the most common Employment Standards regulations that we get asked about at the Workers’ Resource Centre that we believe are essential for all Alberta workers to know.

1. Wage Rules

Minimum Wage
The general minimum wage in Alberta is $15 per hour. There are some exceptions for domestic workers and salespersons whose minimum wage is calculated monthly and weekly. Student workers under the age of 18 can be paid as low as $13/hour for up to 28 hours a week, however, other strict conditions must be met for employers to pay this student wage rate.

The 3-Hour Minimum Rule
Employees must be paid at least 3 hours of pay at minimum wage each time they go to work, even if their employer sends them home earlier. If you were called into work and sent home after working only 1 hour, you must still be paid for 3 hours of work.

2. Overtime and the 8/44 Rule

In Alberta, overtime for most workers is calculated using the 8/44 rule (Note: there are some industries and professions that are exempt from this rule). Overtime means all hours worked beyond 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week, whichever is more.

Let’s say you worked 10 hours a day for 5 days a week for a total of 50 hours. If you calculated overtime weekly (above 44 hours), you would only have 6 hours of overtime. But when you calculate it daily (8 hours) you would have 10 hours of overtime, so your employer would be required to compensate you for 10 hours of overtime, not 6.

Depending on the agreement with an employer, overtime can be compensated by paying workers at 1.5 times the regular rate of pay or by banking hours. If you and your employer agree to bank overtime hours, you are initially paid for overtime at the regular rate of pay and later, you are entitled paid time off equal to the number of overtime hours worked. (Note: unless stated in writing, banked overtime hours must be used within six months).

3. Breaks

Workers in Alberta are entitled to breaks after working 5 hours or more. If your shift is more than 5 hours long and less than 10 hours, you are entitled to at least one 30-minute break. If your shift is longer than 10 hours, you are entitled to at least two 30-minute breaks.

Breaks may be paid or unpaid. However, if your employer places restrictions on your activities during a break (such as not being allowed to leave your workplace), your break must be paid.

4. Rest

Alberta workers must be provided at least 1 day of rest from work each week. Employers can combine work weeks, meaning you work without rest for more than one week, but must provide workers with the following periods of rest:

  • If you work 2 weeks straight, you are entitled to 2 consecutive days off before returning to work.
  • If you work 3 weeks straight, you are entitled to 3 consecutive days off.
  • If you work 4 days straight, you are entitled to 4 consecutive days off.

5. Job-protected leaves

There are 12 types of leaves that workers are allowed to take from work, without risking losing their job. Most workers who have been employed for more than 90 days are eligible for the following types of leave:

1. COVID-19 Infection = up to 14 days unpaid leave

2. COVID-19 vaccination = up to 3 hours paid leave

3. Citizenship Ceremony = half day unpaid leave

4. Maternity and Parental Leave = Up to 16 weeks unpaid maternity leave for a birth parent and up to 62 weeks of unpaid parental leave per child*

5. Personal and Family Responsibility = Up to 5 days of unpaid leave necessary for a worker’s health or for a worker’s family needs.

6. Illness/Injury Leave = up to 16 weeks per year of unpaid job-protected leave to heal from a long-term illness or injury.*   

7. Compassionate Care = up to 27 weeks unpaid leave to provide end-of-life care for a family member*

8. Critical Illness = up to 16 weeks unpaid leave to care for a critically ill adult family member and up to 36 weeks unpaid leave to care for a critically ill child*

9. Bereavement (death of a family member or a pregnancy loss) =3 days unpaid leave

10. Death or disappearance of a child = up to 52 weeks unpaid leave if the child has disappeared and up to 104 weeks unpaid if the child has died due to a crime.*

11. Domestic Violence = up to 10 days unpaid job-protected leave*

12. Reservist = unpaid job-protected leave for Canadian Forces reservists for deployment and training

 * While these leaves are not paid by the employer, there are other government programs and grants that provide income support due to these circumstances.

If you have questions about how these rules apply to your work, have an employer who isn’t following these rules, or need help with a job-protected leave, please click “Get Help” below.

10 rights at work you probably didn’t know you have in Alberta

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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:

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