Claiming Unpaid Overtime After You Quit or Are Let Go

In the federal regime, banked time off in lieu of overtime does not simply vanish when you leave. Under the Canada Labour Code, s. 174(4), if lieu time you were entitled to is not taken within the applicable period, the employer must pay it out at not less than 1.5× your regular rate within 30 days after that period ends. And s. 174(5) applies the same 30-day payout rule at the end of employment: banked overtime you never took as time off becomes money owed, at time-and-a-half, payable within 30 days of termination.

Two clocks then govern how far back you can reach and how long you have:

• Recovery depth: if your employment ended before you filed, a payment order reaches back 24 months before the date of termination (s. 251.1(1.1)(a)).
• Filing deadline: the complaint must still be filed within 6 months of the last day the wages were due (s. 251.01).

In Ontario, leaving does not change the recovery window. Unpaid overtime remains recoverable up to 2 years before the complaint is filed (ESA, s. 111), the same as for a current employee. On top of that, Ontario's rules on final wages apply when employment ends — your last pay is meant to settle what you are owed, and unpaid overtime is part of that. If it was left out, it is squarely within the two-year recovery window.

Québec is where former employees most often lose out through delay. The one-year prescription under art. 115 runs from each due date, and termination does not reset or extend it. Whether you are still employed or left last month, each unpaid pay period is prescribed one year after it fell due. Because the window is the shortest of the three and rolls off pay period by pay period, a former Québec employee should act immediately: a CNESST investigation notice can suspend prescription for six months (art. 116), but that is no substitute for filing promptly.

"I signed a release when I left, so I can't claim." Read carefully before assuming this. Employment-standards entitlements are statutory minimums, and a general release does not automatically wipe out every wage right — the effect of any document depends on its exact terms and the governing regime. Do not treat a signature as the end of the story without checking; have the wording assessed.

"It's been too long — it's too late." Maybe, maybe not. The answer is entirely a function of your regime's window: 24 months (federal, from termination), 2 years (Ontario), or 1 year from each due date (Québec). If your most recent unpaid pay periods still fall inside that window, part of your claim is very much alive — even if the oldest hours are gone. Don't self-reject; check the dates. Our companion guide, How Far Back Can You Claim Unpaid Wages?, walks through each window in detail.

Some workers hesitate to claim after leaving because they fear a bad reference or being "blacklisted." Protection against reprisal for asserting your rights is a separate issue from the wage claim itself, with its own rules and its own route — it is not part of the overtime calculation, and it should not stop you from recovering wages you are genuinely owed. If retaliation is a concern, treat it as its own question and address it through the appropriate channel for your regime.

Ending a job does not end an overtime debt. Federally, termination can actively trigger a time-and-a-half payout of banked lieu time within 30 days. In Ontario, your two-year window is unchanged by leaving. In Québec, the one-year clock keeps rolling and does not reset — so former employees must move fastest of all. Ignore the "I signed something" and "it's too late" myths until you have actually checked your dates and, where relevant, had any release reviewed. Then confirm your regime, anchor the right window, and file. Start by seeing exactly how much is still recoverable in How Far Back Can You Claim Unpaid Wages?.

Enforcement follows your regime: the Labour Program (federal), the Ministry of Labour (Ontario), or the CNESST (Québec).