Raising an Overtime or Pay Issue With HR: A Practical Script

Before the meeting, do the arithmetic the employer should already have done. Line up two columns: the hours you actually worked, week by week, and the hours you were paid for on each pay statement. The gap between them, above the overtime threshold, is your claim.

You are not the only one who is supposed to hold these records. Every Canadian regime obliges the employer to keep them too. Federally, the employer must record the hours worked each day and the amounts paid as overtime (Canada Labour Standards Regulations, s. 24). In Ontario, it must record the dates and times the employee worked (ESA, s. 15). In Québec, the employer keeps a registry showing the number of hours of work per day, the weekly total, and overtime hours (Règlement N-1.1, r. 6, art. 1). Knowing this changes the dynamic: you are not asking HR to take your word for it — you are inviting them to check your figures against records they are legally required to maintain.

Three numbers should be at your fingertips before you sit down:

• The threshold. Overtime starts at 40 hours a week federally (Canada Labour Code, s. 169 — plus 8 hours in a day federally) and in Québec (LNT, art. 52), but at 44 hours a week in Ontario (ESA, s. 22). Use the one that matches your regime and no other.
• The rate. Everywhere in scope it is one and one-half times the regular rate (Canada Labour Code, s. 174; ESA, s. 22; LNT, art. 55 — a majoration de 50 %).
• Any banked lieu time owed. If you were given time off instead of pay, check whether it was actually taken in time. Federally, lieu time not taken within the applicable period converts back to a monetary debt at 1.5× (Canada Labour Code, s. 174(4)); in Québec, compensatory leave must be taken within 12 months or the debt survives (LNT, art. 55).

Most pushback falls into four familiar scripts. Have your answer ready.

"You're salaried, so overtime doesn't apply." Being paid a salary is not, by itself, an exemption. Salary is a method of payment, not a category that removes the statutory overtime entitlement. Whether overtime is owed turns on the specific rules of your regime, not on whether your pay arrives as a salary. (See our guide on salaried employees and overtime in Canada.)

"You're a manager, you're exempt." Exemptions turn on the function actually performed, not the title on your contract. A "manager" label pinned to a job that is mostly non-managerial work does not automatically remove the entitlement. (See overtime exemptions for managers and supervisors.)

"We average your hours out." Averaging only counts if there is a valid, compliant agreement. It is not something an employer can apply retroactively or by assertion. Federally it operates under s. 169(2); in Ontario only under a compliant agreement (ESA, s. 22(2)); in Québec via the rules of art. 53. Absent a proper agreement, the plain weekly threshold applies. (See averaging agreements and the overtime threshold.)

"It's too old, forget it." Recovery windows are longer than most employers imply. A payment order can reach back 24 months federally (Canada Labour Code, s. 251.1(1.1)); an Ontario order can reach two years (ESA, s. 111); a Québec civil action is prescribed at one year from each due date (LNT, art. 115). "Too old" is rarely true for recent pay periods — and in Québec especially, it is a reason to act now rather than to give up.

Tone matters as much as content. Stay factual and unhurried; you are reviewing figures, not accusing anyone. But keep a record: note the date of the meeting, who attended, and what was agreed or refused, and follow up in writing afterward with a short summary. If HR commits to a correction, get the date. If they refuse, you now have a documented refusal — the exact thing the regulator needs to see.

One thing to hold firmly in mind: nothing said in the meeting waives your rights. An off-hand "let's call it even" or a suggestion to "drop the older weeks" does not lawfully extinguish a statutory minimum or restart a deadline. The overtime entitlement and the recovery clock exist independently of what is said in the room.

If the meeting produces no correction, the regulator for your regime is the next step. Federally, complaints go to the Labour Program, with payment orders issued by the Head. In Ontario, you file with the Ministry of Labour, reviewable before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. In Québec, you file with the CNESST, and unresolved disputes proceed before the Tribunal administratif du travail — never a "prud'hommes," which is a French institution with no place in Canadian law. Your reconciliation and meeting notes are already the core of that file.