e.g. money an employer takes off your pay cheque

Deductions from Pay Understanding Basic Facts 1) Explain the term deductions in your own words. - Answers may vary. e.g. money an employer takes off your pay cheque 2) What are 2 examples of deductions under the Labour Standards Code that can take your wage below minimum wage? - Deductions such as income tax or other statutory deductions, health benefits, or repayment of pay advances. These types of deductions do not need an agreement. - Deductions such as payment for items bought from the employer, or lodging for employees who pay their employer for lodging. These types of deductions must have a clear agreement. 3) For a CLEAR AGREEMENT between an employer and employee to be lawful, what must it involve? In your own words, why are these components required? - The employee must understand what the deductions are, know how the deductions will happen, and agree to these conditions. The agreement can be verbal or in writing. 4) You have Health and Dental coverage. You start a new job where regular deductions are taken for a workplace health and dental plan. According to the Labour Standards Code, can the employer demand that you pay for the work place plan? - The Labour Standards Code does not have any rules or guidelines for dealing with employees who want to opt out of a health or dental plan. Employers are able to establish rules at their workplaces. 5) What are the 3 types of agreements under the Labour Standards Code that allow employers to take deductions that can NOT take your wage below minimum wage? Give an example of each. - Type #1: verbal or written agreement to repay a personal loan or to take out payment for a uniform. This is a loan that an employer has made to you as an employee or payment for a work uniform. - Type # 2: a written agreement to deduct for losses or damages: An employer can not take your wage below minimum wage to deduct for losses, shortages, or damages such as broken plates at a restaurant. - Type # 3: a written agreement for losses that are the employee s fault. An employer can not take your wage below minimum wage to deduct for losses because a customer leaves without paying. To be able to make this deduction, the employer must show that this loss is your

Deductions from Pay fault. For example, there may have been a theft from the retail store when you were not watching carefully. 6) Calculate: Your employer loans you $100. You are an experienced worker and earn $9.50 per hour and work 25 hours per week. How much can your employer lawfully deduct from your pay each week? - Your salary per week ($10.00 x 25 = $250.00) Minimum wage salary ($9.65 x 25 = $241.25) Your employer can deduct $8.75 each week. ($250.00 $241.25 = $8.75) 7) You work in a restaurant. Your employer takes deductions from everyone s pay cheque every week to cover losses from broken plates. Under what circumstances is this lawful? - Your employer must have a written agreement with you and your fellow employees. Ideally this agreement should be signed and dated. The deduction must not take the wages below minimum wage. Applying the code 8) You earn minimum wage. Your employer loans you $50. Describe 1 lawful arrangement that you can make to repay the loan. - Your employer can not take your wage below minimum wage to repay a personal loan. So, any arrangement to repay will need to be made with your employer separately from your pay. You may agree to repay your employer $10 every month for the next 5 months, for example. 9) You work in a retail jewelry store. a) Describe a situation where a loss occurs that you are responsible for repaying. Why? - You are texting on your cell phone with your friend and you are so distracted by your conversation that you do not notice that someone who was looking at a watch has put it in their pocket and is leaving the store. You may be responsible for paying back your employer the cost of the watch if this loss can be shown to be your fault. However, these deductions can not take your wage below minimum wage and there must be a clear, written agreement. b) Describe a situation where a loss occurs that you are not responsible for repaying. Why? - An employee may not be held at fault for a loss if a customer does not pay and acts in a threatening manner so that the employee feels at risk of being hurt. This type of situation overlaps with the Nova Scotia Occupational Health and Safety Act which requires employers to make their workplaces as reasonably safe and risk free as possible. There may be other factors to consider to determine if an employee is at fault. For example, did the employee follow all the employer s rules and procedures?

Holiday Pay Understanding the Basic Facts 1) List the holidays that qualify for holiday pay. - New Year s Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Christmas Day, and Remembrance Day (for some workers) 2) Can your employer ask you to work on these holidays? - Yes. If you work on the holiday, you may be eligible for extra pay. See the question, How much do I get paid? Some retail workers can refuse to work certain holidays. 3) You have worked full time, Monday to Friday, each week for the last 4 months for a chair manufacturer. You worked your regular shifts before and after the holiday. Are you entitled to holiday pay? If you work on the holiday, how much would you get paid? - Yes, if you worked the shifts you were scheduled to work closest to the holiday, before and after it, you are eligible to be paid for this holiday. - If you work on the holiday, you get your full regular day s pay, plus 1½ times your regular rate of pay per hour for the hours you work. 4) You have worked steadily for the last 6 months. You worked 9 am to 6 pm. Monday to Friday. You decide to have a 2-day Christmas holiday. Your employer has approved Boxing Day as a vacation day. You return to work, as scheduled, on December 27 th. Do you get paid for Christmas Day? How much do you get paid? - Yes. Christmas Day is a paid holiday and you get your regular wage for this day. Boxing Day is a vacation day and falls under the Vacation Time and Vacation Pay rules. 5) You work full time for a moving company Monday to Friday. You have worked for the entire summer months of June, July, and August. Your employer asks you to work on Labour Day. How much do you get paid for that day? - You get your full regular day s pay, plus 1½ times your regular rate of pay per hour for the hours you work.

Holiday Pay 6) Describe in your own words what is meant by a continuous operation. Give 3 examples of types of businesses that are continuous operations. - Answers will vary. e.g. A business that normally runs 7 days a week such as a corner store, a cinema, a restaurant, gas station, or a nursing home. 7) Name some jobs where the rules around holiday pay do not apply. - Most farm workers, real estate sales person, caregiver 8) You work Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, every week in a restaurant. You have worked for the months of January, February, March, and April. Do you get paid for Good Friday? Explain the rules about how much you get paid for holiday pay in your own words. - You work for a continuous operation. This is a workplace that operates every day of the week. So, you will go to work as usual on Good Friday. You will get paid your full regular day s pay, plus you will get either of these: 1½ times your regular rate of pay per hour for the hours you work or another day off with pay.

Holiday Pay Applying the code 9) You qualify for the Canada Day holiday and you take that full day off. However, your work schedule varies. For the last 30 days before Canada Day, you worked a total of 18 days and 144 hours for $9.00 an hour. Calculate your holiday pay for Canada Day. - $72 Calculate your average daily hours first (144 18 = 8.) Calculate your holiday pay next. This will be your regular wage for the day. (8 hours per day x $9.00 = $72.00) 10) You have to work one holiday day a year in your company. Your company is not a continuous operation. Which holiday would you pick and why? Which holiday would give you the most holiday pay? - Answers will vary. - Any holiday except Remembrance Day. If you work on Remembrance Day, you are still only paid your regular wage for the hours you work plus another day off with pay. The other holidays pay you your full regular day s pay plus 1½ times your rate per hour for the hours you worked on that holiday. 11) You start working for a retail store a week before Christmas during the shopping rush. You worked your last shift before Christmas and the last shift after Christmas. Are you able to get holiday pay for Christmas Day? - No. You have not worked at this workplace long enough to qualify for holiday pay.

Minimum Wage Understanding the Basic Facts 1) Explain the term minimum wage in your own words. - Least amount an employer can give an employee per hour - Set by the provincial government through the General Minimum Wage Order 2) Why is there a minimum wage? - Meant to create minimum standards of pay throughout the province - To give employees a fair wage for a fair day s work 3) What are the minimum wage rates in Nova Scotia? How do they differ? - $9.65 an hour for employees working at the same workplace or those who have done the same kind of work for 3 calendar months or more. - $9.15 an hour for employees who are new to doing this kind of work and have worked for less than 3 calendar months 4) If you start a new job in which you have no experience, how long will you have to work before you are entitled to a raise? - 3 calendar months 5) Name some jobs where the Minimum Wage Order does not apply. - Answers may vary - Some farm workers, apprentice, person taking training program sponsored by the government, insurance agent etc. 6) If you work for 7 hours, 45 minutes at $9.65, how much will you earn? - $77.20 Your employer must round up your pay so that you get paid for partial hours. 7) You get called in to work because they are busy and you work for 2 hours. How many hours of work must your employer pay you for? At what rate of pay? - You must be paid for 3 hours and your rate must be at least minimum wage.

Minimum Wage Applying the code 8) Who do you think benefits the most from the rules about piecework? Why? - Employees benefit by these rules. The rules say that employers must pay employees at least the minimum wage even if they do not produce enough pieces of whatever they are making. Of course, employers may have the right to fire or dismiss workers who are not productive enough. These employers will need to follow the rules around giving notice to terminate the employment (e.g. working notice, just cause, pay in lieu of notice). 9) After working in a restaurant for 2 years, you start working for a cleaning company. According to the Labour Standards Code, what do you think your starting wage will be? Why? - This depends on your job description and tasks. If your new employer thinks that your previous experience overlapped your new duties, you might be able to receive the minimum wage for an experienced employee ($9.20 per hour). If your duties do not overlap, or your employer thinks that you are inexperienced with your new workplace tasks, you may be paid the lower minimum wage ($8.70 per hour). Being able to describe and promote your skills in your portfolio or through your interview may make the difference.

Overtime Understanding the Basic Facts 1) Explain the term overtime in your own words. - Answers may vary. May include phrases such as work time after regularly scheduled shifts, additional hours worked at the request of the employer. 2) What is the overtime rate that applies to most employees in Nova Scotia? - After an employee works over 48 hours in one week, their pay is 1½ times their regular wage for these extra hours. 3) Calculate: If you work for 50 hours in a week, and you earn minimum wage, how much do you earn that week? If you work for 40 hours in 1 week, and you earn minimum wage, how much do you earn that week? Is this the same for every workplace that pays overtime? - If you are an experienced worker $492.15 Calculations: (48 x $ 9.65) + ( 2 x $ 14.47) = $463.20 + $28.95 = $492.15 - If you are an inexperienced worker $466.64 Calculations: (48 x $ 9.15) + ( 2 x $ 13.72) = $439.20 + $27.44 = $466.64 4) Name some jobs where overtime does not apply. Name some jobs that are calculated after 96 hours of work in two weeks. - Overtime does not apply to these kinds of jobs: most farm workers, logging workers, forestry workers, live-in health care workers - Overtime applies if you work more than 96 hours in a 2-week period if you work in these kinds of jobs: short-haul trucking for the business or delivery drivers 5) You work as a road construction worker and have been required to work for 150 hours over 2 weeks. How much do you get paid? - 110 hours x regular wage + 40 hours x 1 ½ x regular wage

Overtime Applying the code 6) You work in a storeroom and a big shipment came in that needs to be stocked on the shelves. You have already worked 48 hours over the first 3 days of the week. a) You are not required but you volunteer to stay and work an extra 3 hours for the last 2 nights to unpack these boxes. Calculate what you get paid (minimum wage as an experienced worker). - Under the Labour Standards Code you do not qualify for overtime pay because you volunteered to work these additional hours and your employer did not require you to work these extra hours. Your employer may agree to give you overtime pay, but this is a private agreement between you and your employer. b) The next week, your manager decides that 4 extra hours are necessary to finish unpacking this shipment. You have already worked 48 hours over the first 3 days of this week. How much do you get paid? How much does your manager get paid? - You receive 4 x 1½ x your regular wage. - Your manager receives 4 x 1½ times minimum wage or 4 x 1½ her regular wage, whichever is higher.

Vacation Time and Vacation Pay Understanding the Basic Facts 1) Explain the difference between vacation time and vacation pay, in your own words. - Vacation pay is a per centage of your wage that you earn as you work. This is money given to you as well as your wages. - Vacation time is time you take away from your job. Your vacation pay is given to you to pay for this unpaid time off work. 2) You have been working full time for 7 years for the same company. How much vacation pay and vacation time does the Labour Standards Code say you should get each year? - 4% of your wages to pay for 2 weeks of unpaid vacation time 3) You start a new job. How long will you have to work before you are entitled to more than 4% pay and 2 weeks of vacation time? - When you start your 9th year at the same workplace, you will get 6% of your wages to pay for 3 weeks of unpaid vacation time. 4) You get 2 weeks of vacation time. What are the Labour Standards Code rules about taking that time? - Answers may vary - e.g. Time must be taken within 10 months after you earn it. - Your employer can set your vacation date and must tell you about this date at least 1 week before you start your vacation. - You must take at least 1 week of vacation time all at once but you can break up the rest of the time. 5) Name some jobs where the rules around vacation pay and vacation time do not apply? - Answers may vary, e.g. fishing boat workers, person who sells real estate or vehicles.

Vacation Time and Vacation Pay 6) If you work part time, do you have to take vacation time? Explain the rules about parttime employees and vacation pay and time in your own words. - Part time means you work less than 90% of regular working hours at your place of work. - You can take either vacation time and vacation pay, or just vacation pay. - You must notify your employer in writing that you will not take vacation time. 7) What vacation pay option will give you a regular pay cheque during your vacation time? - Option 3. Your employer averages out your wage and vacation pay so that you get the same amount each pay cheque. During your vacation period, you continue receiving this same pay cheque amount. Applying the code 8) Your employer uses Vacation Pay Option 1. When you take your vacation time, what happens to your pay? - You will not receive a regular pay cheque. You have already received your vacation pay which was added to your regular pay cheque every time you were paid over the last year. (4% if you have worked up to 8 years; 6% if you have completed 8 or more years). 9) If you are not sure how much vacation pay or time you have received, how can you find out? - Ask your employer to show you. Employers must keep a record showing when you took your vacation time and what vacation pay you earned. 10) You have been working full time, Monday to Friday, for the same employer for 10 years. Can you take one day a month for a year from your vacation time to visit a sick friend? Explain your answer. - No. The Labour Code states that you must take at least 1 week of unbroken time, time taken all at once. If you earned 3 weeks of vacation, you could take one week unbroken time and the other 10 days you can work out with your employer to take one day a month.

Making a Complaint Understanding the Basic Facts 1) How can you contact the Labour Standards Division with a complaint? - Call 1-888-315-0110 - (Found on website) Go to the office 5151 Terminal Road, 7th floor, or send mail to PO Box 697, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2T8. You don t need an appointment. 2) When can you file a complaint with the Labour Standards Division? How can you do it? - Within 6 months of when you had the problem - By contacting the Labour Standards Division and speaking to a Labour Standards officer 3) What should you do to prepare if you decide you want to go to the Labour Standards Division with a complaint against your employer? - Answers will vary. You experience a problem at your workplace. You check the Labour Standards Code Basic Facts sheets or the website and feel that your employer did not follow the Labour Standards Code correctly. You carefully gather all the information that you can that relates to this problem. This might involve finding any documents like payroll records, and writing down all of the things that happened, including specific dates. You might also write down the names of people who know what happened. If possible, speak with your employer directly to try to resolve the problem. If this is not possible or does not resolve the problem contact the Labour Standards Division, and provide them with all of your information. 4) In your own words, what happens before a complaint is filed with the Labour Standards Division? - Answers will vary. You call or go to the Labour Standards offices and speak with an officer. The officer determines if your situation falls under the Labour Standards Code and if the Labour Standards Division is the correct division to deal with this problem. - You tell your situation in detail to the Labour Standards Officer, showing all of your documents and information. - Fill out the official complaint form. The Labour Standards officer can help you fill out the official complaint form. Your complaint is officially filed once you return this form to the officer.

Making a Complaint 5) How does the Labour Standards Division protect your identity? - You do not need to give your name or personal information when you call the Labour Standards Division to get information and to see if your situation can be handled as a complaint by the Labour Standards Division. - The Labour Standards officer will protect your identity as much as possible when they look for evidence about your situation by not giving out your name or personal information. 6) If the employer owes the employee money, but cannot pay, what happens? - The officer may register a judgement against the employer who owes the money. This means that any real estate that is owned by the employer who owes money might have a lien put against it. This means that this real estate cannot be sold easily and if sold, the money that is owed may be collected to give to the employee or former employee who is owed the money. Applying the code 7) In your own words, describe some different ways that a dispute might be resolved between an employee and an employer. - The officer finds that your employer owes you money, or holiday, or vacation time. You both accept the amount the officer decides on, and the employer pays or gives it to you. - The officer finds that your employer was correct in the amount they gave you. You agree to this and withdraw your complaint. - You and your employer agree to an amount that you both feel is fair. - The officer finds that there is not enough evidence to go through with a complaint and you withdraw your complaint. 8) When is a complaint taken to a Labour Standards Tribunal hearing? What does the Tribunal do? - An employee or an employer may strongly disagree with the decision made by the officer from the Labour Standards Division. The file will then go to Labour Standards Tribunal. Someone from the Tribunal will go over the information and make sure it is something that the Tribunal will hear. If it is, the Tribunal will set a date. At the hearing, the Tribunal panel will hear the evidence from the employee and the employer. The Tribunal will then decide whether to support the officer s decision, overturn it completely, or support part of the decision and overturn part of it.

Making a Complaint 9) What can you do to try to make your complaint lead to positive change for you and for other employees at that workplace? - Answers may vary. Keep your complaint and information about your employer confidential. Do not spread rumours. Remain calm. Do not make angry outbursts, call the employer names or do other things that make you look bad as an employee. - Collect and organize all the information that could be useful as evidence, such as pay stubs, calendars, work schedules, memos etc.). Treat the officer with respect. Follow up with requests for information promptly. Accept any decisions in a respectful way.