Many employers mistakenly believe that salaried employees are not entitled to overtime pay, says a Hicks Morley newsletter.
However, Ontario workers that are not exempted from the Employment Standards Act, 2000 overtime requirement are entitled to receive overtime pay for all hours worked over 44 hours in a week, regardless of how they are paid.
“Since the managerial and supervisory exemption in Ontario is very narrow,” states the newsletter, “employers may often fail to pay junior members of management and front line supervisors their proper overtime entitlement.”
A recent decision in Manitoba illustrates this point. Retailer Nygard International intended to include overtime in a supervisor’s salary by using employment contract language that stated salary was “inclusive of all hours required to be worked to fulfill [her] duties.”
The Manitoba Labour Board, which heard the original complaint, concluded that this provision was an attempt to contract out of the overtime provisions of the province’s Employment Standards Code, which was unlawful. Nygard was ordered to pay the former employer more than $10,000 for 284 overtime hours.
Manitoba’s Court of Appeal upheld the decision and the damages award.
Although this decision arose under Manitoba’s Employment Standards Code, it “highlights the risk to Ontario employers of non-compliance with the overtime rules in the ESA, 2000.”
To comment on this story email craig.sebastiano@rci.rogers.com.