Alberta labour board clarifies why job duties, not industry, determine construction exemption
A recent Alberta Employment Standards Appeal Body decision has brought renewed attention to how employers in the construction sector classify workers – and the risks of getting it wrong.
The case — Lika Contracting and Services Ltd. v Roldan, 2025 ABESAB 14 — saw the employer appeal an earlier order by an Employment Standards officer, only to see an increase in what they owed the employee as a result.
The decision turned on whether a worker, primarily a driver delivering materials and removing waste from job sites, qualified for the construction worker exemption under Alberta’s Employment Standards Regulation (ESR).
The employer thought he did, but the tribunal disagreed, ordering the employer to pay him termination entitlements owing to an employee.
According to Christine Plante, partner at Bennett Jones in Calgary, interpreting section 5(1) of the Alberta ESA is a common area of confusion for employers: “The biggest misunderstanding about the way that the exemption in section five of the regulations is meant to apply is that people think it applies to the industry that the employer is in.”
The section stipulates that employees are not entitled to termination notice if they are “employed at the site of and in the construction, erection, repair, remodelling, alteration, painting, interior decoration or demolition of any…...
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