The standard work day is 8 hours and the standard work week is 40 hours. An employee who works more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week must be paid overtime unless the employer has implemented a flexible work schedule or the Branch has granted a variance. Depending on the schedule worked, an employee could be eligible for daily overtime, weekly overtime, or both in the course of a week. However, daily overtime and weekly overtime are calculated separately.
For purposes of calculating overtime, the work week runs from Sunday through Saturday.
After working 8 hours in a day, an employee must be paid time and a half for the next 3 hours and double time for all hours in excess of 11.
An employee who works more than 40 hours in a week must be paid time and a half for the next 8 hours, and double time for all hours in excess of 48. In calculating the total hours worked for weekly overtime purposes, only the first 8 hours worked on each day are counted.
In a week with a statutory holiday, an employee who qualifies for the holiday must be paid weekly overtime at time and a half after 32 hours, and double time after 40 hours. Any time worked by the employee on that holiday is not included in calculating weekly overtime.
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farm worker who works more than 120 hours within a 2 week period must be paid double time for all hours in excess of 120.For more information, see the related fact sheet, Farm Workers.
At an employee's written request, an employer may establish a time bank and credit the employee's overtime wages to it instead of paying the wages as they are earned.
An employee may at any time request the employer to pay out all or part of the wages credited to the bank. The employee may also request time off with pay for some mutually-agreed period, or request in writing that the bank be closed. Upon termination, or upon receiving an employee's request to close the bank, the employer must pay the outstanding balance to the employee.
All banked wages must be drawn out by the employee or paid out by the employer within 6 months of being earned. If several employees have time banks, the employer may set a common date for paying out the banked time so long as all wages are paid within 6 months of being earned.
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