The Employment Standards Act (“ESA”) protects the rights of employees and sets out many of the rules that govern the employment relationship of provincially-regulated employees.
The ESA covers things like the minimum wage, hours of work, overtime pay, public holidays, and leaves of absence. Employees cannot “contract out” of their rights under the ESA. For example, an agreement to work for below the minimum wage is unenforceable because of the ESA.
The ESA does not require employers to provide “coffee breaks”. An employer is only required to provide a 30-minute unpaid eating period if an employee works for more than five consecutive hours. The employer must pay the employee if during a break period they perform work or are not permitted to leave the worksite.
Generally, an employer must pay overtime pay if an employee works more than 44 hours in a week. Overtime pay is 1.5 times the regular pay rate. Employees can agree in writing to an averaging agreement with their employer where they only receive overtime pay if the average hours worked per week during the averaging period exceeds 44 hours.
There are nine public holidays under the ESA, sometimes called “statutory holidays.” Most employees are entitled to take these days off work with pay. Alternately, an employee can agree to work a public holiday for public holiday pay plus premium pay (1.5 times the regular pay rate) or receive a substitute holiday.
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