Just because your boss asks you to do something at work, it doesn’t always make it legal, but many Canadian workers aren’t sure where to draw the line.
Off-the-clock work
Bosses often ask you to do those quick jobs, attend pre-shift meetings, or clean up after yourself before/after your scheduled login hours.
Under Canadian provincial labour law, if you have to be at work/place of work or doing something for your boss, you get paid. Training, preparation, and closing up are all paid for by law.
Uniform deductions
When a job requires you to wear a uniform, logo wear, or special safety equipment, some employers will simply deduct the cost from your paycheck. Wage deductions are highly scrutinized by labor laws; your employer typically cannot dip into minimum wage to pay for costs of doing business, and they must have written permission from you to deduct.
Digital availability
Responding to emails late at night or to urgent text messages on weekends is another standard corporate boundary breach.
In provinces such as Ontario, “Right to Disconnect” legislation has been passed, which mandates that employers have written policies, ensuring employees will not be penalized for not responding to work-related messages after hours.
Till shortages
Retail and restaurant bosses may try to get you to pay out of pocket if the cash register comes up short at the end of your shift or if a customer steals from your register without paying.
Employers cannot deduct your wages if this happens to you. A cash shortage is a normal business expense.
Safety risks
Managers sometimes pressure employees to cut corners on slow safety procedures to meet strict deadlines, or to use equipment they aren’t certified on.
Every employee in Canada has a legal right to refuse unsafe work under provincial occupational health and safety laws. So your employer cannot penalize you for exercising this right.
Overtime forfeiture
Employees who are salaried hear constantly that they aren’t eligible for overtime since they don’t punch a timecard.
In fact, provincial standards make it clear that almost all employees, salaried or not, qualify for overtime pay when they exceed a set number of hours per week, outside of extremely narrow exemptions for executives or professionals.
Medical details
Whenever employees call in sick or request a disability accommodation, many managers demand specific diagnoses or personal medical information. Employers are only legally entitled to know your limitations, e.g. if you can lift boxes or when you’ll be able to return to work safely, not the diagnosis.
Dynamic roles
Bosses may sometimes attempt to drastically change your job description, cut your hours or change your principal work location to another city without your agreement.
Under Canadian employment law, a substantial, unilateral change to the core terms of your employment may be considered a “constructive dismissal,” that is, treated by law as if you were fired and entitles you to severance.
Short breaks
Under pressure to meet deadlines, managers often require employees to work through their shifts or eat their lunches at their desks while continuing to take calls.
Provincial labour standards laws throughout Canada state that employees are entitled to a scheduled, unpaid 30-minute break after a certain number of consecutive working hours, usually five.
Pay secrecy
Managers often say talking to co-workers about wages is grounds for termination or against company policy. However, open discussions around pay are strongly protected in most Canadian jurisdictions to promote pay equity. So any company policy or verbal directive prohibiting workers from discussing their compensation is strictly illegal.
Sick retaliation
Bosses can’t fire you openly for taking a legitimate job-protected sick day, but they might punish you silently by pulling your best shifts the next week or write you up with an unwarranted poor performance review.
These types of punishment are called “reprisals” in the labor code and can result in extreme punishment for employers if found guilty.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.