Alberta Employment Standards Code changes effective January 1, 2018

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Ashartus

I suspect most employers will just start giving people a paid holiday on the Monday when Remembrance Day falls on a weekend. Some already do anyhow.

The overtime changes are going to be the big one in my industry, but there was enough heads up to get plans in place. Still have a few clients that are going to fight any increases in our rates to offset the higher costs though.

So what’s the deal with this? I don’t know anyone in my line of work that is on salary that gets overtime. Are they required to pay now?

[gasman]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

They’re not being forced to pay a full day’s wages to all their employees.

https://www.alberta.ca/assets/documents/es-faq.pdf



A lot of employers already pay stats to all employees regardless of which day it lands on.

Your right in some cases it will be more than a full days wage, it will be 5% of the last 4 weeks.

I work at an EPC. If we are on a big push for a project it isn't unreasonable to work 200hours in 4 weeks. Engineers are exempt from overtime, but where we would normally do is close on a stat ( or a day in Liu of a stat) and pay all employees 8 hours. Pretty easy to track... Stat holiday, put 8 hours of stat time on your timesheet.

Now we have to have someone check the math on all of the timesheets to make sure people did the math right. Some people will get 7.2 hours some people will get 10 hours etc.

Likely will save this cost by reducing employee pay raises that we're planned for February

[Harry Lime]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

Reality check:

So does anyone on Calgary puck work for an employer who won't pay the stat holiday if It falls on their scheduled non work day?

I do. And they will not pay an employee that doesn't have the 30 day minimum days worked. And they read that as scheduled days, and not 30 days from hiring. I'll bet there are quite a few companies out there that do the absolute minimum that the law requires.

I read your question as meaning that an employee is working a day that is not their usual shift, and that day turns out to be a stat holiday.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by para transit fellow

Reality check:

So does anyone on Calgary puck work for an employer who won't pay the stat holiday if It falls on their scheduled non work day?

Yup. If that stat falls on a weekend (ie this past Remembrance Day), we don't get a day off on Friday or Monday.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by gasman

Your right in some cases it will be more than a full days wage, it will be 5% of the last 4 weeks.

I work at an EPC. If we are on a big push for a project it isn't unreasonable to work 200hours in 4 weeks. Engineers are exempt from overtime, but where we would normally do is close on a stat ( or a day in Liu of a stat) and pay all employees 8 hours. Pretty easy to track... Stat holiday, put 8 hours of stat time on your timesheet.

Now we have to have someone check the math on all of the timesheets to make sure people did the math right. Some people will get 7.2 hours some people will get 10 hours etc.

Your company doesn’t currently have someone check to make sure that the math on the time sheets is correct? It isn’t easy for them or an exel spreadsheet to keep track of the average? I can agree that paying a straight 8 hours is simpler, however I don’t agree that the calculation aspect is as big of a hardship or as complicated as you’re making it out to be.

Likely will save this cost by reducing employee pay raises that we're planned for February

So the employees will be getting part of their raise early?

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Yup. If that stat falls on a weekend (ie this past Remembrance Day), we don't get a day off on Friday or Monday.

Did you receive stat pay though?

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Did you receive stat pay though?

Nope.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Nope.

I’m assuming you don’t work in an exempt industry, but which industry do you work in?

[gasman]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

Your company doesn’t currently have someone check to make sure that the math on the time sheets is correct? It isn’t easy for them or an exel spreadsheet to keep track of the average? I can agree that paying a straight 8 hours is simpler, however I don’t agree that the calculation aspect is as big of a hardship or as complicated as you’re making it out to be.



So the employees will be getting part of their raise early?

Well we don't currently use Excel to track time or pay people.

My point is that this will require extra time and expense to track and the end result will be a change in corporate policy that will see employees receive less in other areas to offest the expense.

I don't understand your comment about part of the raises being early.

These changes are a classic case of "if it isn't broken don't fix it'

[Ironhorse]

Engineering firm in Oil & Gas. They pretty much pay the minimum that they have to.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by gasman

My point is that this will require extra time and expense to track and the end result will be a change in corporate policy that will see employees receive less in other areas to offest the expense.

I don't understand your comment about part of the raises being early.

If these increases will come out of their pay raises that you stated were coming in February then are they not just getting part of their raise early since there is a stat in January? It’s just money being shifted around if they are allocating a portion of a raise and putting it towards offsettiing additional stat pay expenses.

These changes are a classic case of "if it isn't broken don't fix it'

Some people disagree that the old system wasn’t broke.

[para transit fellow]

Originally Posted by gasman

Well we don't currently use Excel to track time or pay people.

My point is that this will require extra time and expense to track and the end result will be a change in corporate policy that will see employees receive less in other areas to offest the expense.

I don't understand your comment about part of the raises being early.

These changes are a classic case of "if it isn't broken don't fix it'

Presently your company is supposed to calculate the hours for a stat holiday using a 9-week average of hours worked prior to the stat. The new 5% rule is supposed to be simpler math.

[GGG]

These things will be automatically calculated by the time sheet/ pay roll software that is used. Saskatchewan has had more or less the same policy for at least 20 years. It might mildly increase costs with an extra star for some businesses which are closed weekends and pay the minimum stats. So that excludes all restaurants, construction, and retail and leaves mostly cheap office companies. I don't have much sympathy for them.

The policy I find ridiculous is the 18 months of job protection for Pat Leave. A business will now have to protect 3.5 years of the position where a person works only 22 weeks. That is a ridiculous burden. Have a kid, take 18 months, return pregnant to max EI again in 22 weeks, then take another 18 months off.

It also doesn't increase EI benefits (though that is federal) so the benefit is targeted at those who can afford it.

[iggy_oi]

The policy I find ridiculous is the 18 months of job protection for Pat Leave. A business will now have to protect 3.5 years of the position where a person works only 22 weeks. That is a ridiculous burden. Have a kid, take 18 months, return pregnant to max EI again in 22 weeks, then take another 18 months off.

It also doesn't increase EI benefits (though that is federal) so the benefit is targeted at those who can afford it.

Is this really much worse than the current system though? An employee can already take consecutive leaves with only 600 hours worked in between leaves and still qualify for EI and have their job protected. So if an employee were to try and time it out, they could still manage to get 3 years of leave with only 30 weeks worked during that time. I realize their job protection would be much longer under the new rules if that employee were to have 3 children under the new rules, I’m just saying I don’t think the difference would be very noticeable for the employer since they would likely need to hire a replacement whether the employee takes 2 years or 3 years leave.

The change has also already been implemented at the federal level where an employee on leave can opt to take up to 18 months of parental leave benefits at a reduced rate.
https://www.canada.ca/en/services/be...-parental.html

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Yup. If that stat falls on a weekend (ie this past Remembrance Day), we don't get a day off on Friday or Monday.

Canada Day and New Years too?

A lot of companies shift Remembrance day around to a different day of the year, but it is surprising to me that you don't get paid for the stats.

The years where Christmas/Boxing day fall on a sat/sun must be just absolutely terrible.

[spetch]

Originally Posted by Regorium

Canada Day and New Years too?



A lot of companies shift Remembrance day around to a different day of the year, but it is surprising to me that you don't get paid for the stats.



The years where Christmas/Boxing day fall on a sat/sun must be just absolutely terrible.

Canada day always shifts off the weekend to the weekday. I believe it’s the only stat that does that. Boxing Day isn’t a classified as a stat in Alberta so it does not matter what day it falls on.

[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by spetch

Canada day always shifts off the weekend to the weekday. I believe it’s the only stat that does that. Boxing Day isn’t a classified as a stat in Alberta so it does not matter what day it falls on.

What do you mean by it always shifts to the weekday? Employers aren’t required to treat Canada Day any different than Christmas, New Years or Remembrance Day.

[spetch]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

What do you mean by it always shifts to the weekday? Employers aren’t required to treat Canada Day any different than Christmas, New Years or Remembrance Day.

Sorry jut meant if it falls on a Sunday, not the weekend.

https://work.alberta.ca/employment-s...anada-day.html
If Canada day falls on a Sunday, Then July 2 becomes the holiday

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by Swarly

So reading through all this I stumbled to payday timeframe rules and it seems that an employer must pay within 10 days of the end of the payday period. This rule is unchanged. Yet, every job I remember, and my current job (6+ years) has paid me 2 weeks behind. That is, I will get paid Jan 31 for my time worked Jan 1-15th (I am an hourly not salary employee if that matters). I understood this to be very standard, is anyone else here paid like this? Is this illegal or am I reading the laws wrong, or missing some third option they are taking advantage of.

My google-fu skills tell me I am being paid in arrears but I cannot find anything related to Alberta payment law other than this 10-day rule.

Perhaps they mean within 10 business days? My employer has just switched from monthly to bi-monthly pay and part of the reason was to comply to other jurisdictions (Saskatchewan apparently, and several U.S. States where we operate) that are a little more strict on the interpretation of this.

[Angelamc]

Is there any mention of new enforment measures? From my experience dealing with small businesses in many different industries, employers pay the minimum the can as the labour board, in Calgary anyhow, is a joke and they are crap at enforcing any of their laws. Useful link though and if I was permitted to pay my clients employees as they should be paid they have made a few things easier to calculate.