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Issuing an ROE for a self-funded leave; Calculating statutory holiday pay when wages vary

 Issuing an ROE for a self-funded leave
Question: One of our employees is about to take a self-funded leave of absence. Do I have to issue a Record of Employment (ROE) for her?

ANSWER: When it comes to this situation, no ROE is needed because there is no interruption of earnings. For self-funded leaves, employees work and defer part of their pay for a specified period of time in order to pay for the leave to be taken at a later date (for example, an employee is paid 75 per cent of her salary for three years and she takes a self-funded leave in the fourth year).

Employers will have to issue an ROE if either they or the employee breaks the agreement that allowed for the leave and the employee will not be returning to work at the end of the leave. In that case, in block 11 ("Last day for which paid") on the ROE, the employer must report the date of the employee’s last day of work before she went on the leave.



Calculating statutory holiday pay when wages vary
Question: How do we calculate statutory holiday pay for employees whose wages vary from day to day?

ANSWER: The answer depends on where the employee works since statutory holidays are governed by provincial/territorial employment/labour standards laws and the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated workers, as the following list shows:

Canada Labour Code: Pay employees 1/20th of the wages they earned in the four weeks right before the week in which the holiday falls, excluding overtime pay. If employees are paid entirely or partially by commission and they have worked for their employer for at least 12 continuous weeks, pay them at least 1/60th of the wages they earned, excluding overtime pay, in the 12 weeks right before the week of the holiday.

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