Employment Insurance (EI) Employer’s guide on the Report on Hiring Program

Why the Automated Report on Hirings system?
How is hiring information used by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
How the program works
Production of the first printout
Monthly submission
How the hiring data is used
Concerning your employees
What to watch for when programming
MOD-10 check to validate the SIN 
Errors on the Hirings printout
Header record
Detail record
Requests for Payroll Information from Human Resources and SKills Development Canada (HRSDC)
If Requests for Payroll Information is sent to your central pay office
If you want Requests for Payroll Information sent to the pay centres and want the hirings printouts to be produced from a central office
If you want hirings to be reported by each pay centre
Printing specifications
How to register

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Why the Automated Report on Hirings system?

In order to reduce the time, and expense, that employers spend completing the Manual Report on Hirings, we have developed another system called the Automated Report on Hirings (ROH) which allows larger organizations to report their hirings on a computer printout.

The computer printout reporting system is not intended for payroll service bureaus and large corporations because they report substantial number of hirings on behalf of their clients, and on behalf of their pay centres respectively. 

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How is hiring information used by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) will only extract information on employees who are, or have been claimants, and for whom there appears to be an over-payment. Information collected through the Report on Hirings (ROH) program can be used in the administration of HRSDC's employment and benefit programs.

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How the program works 

Your participation in the Report on Hirings (ROH) program is voluntary. To help detect and deter overpayments, HRDC is asking you, as an employer, to report the Social Insurance Number and first day worked of your newly-hired or recalled employees on an on-going basis.

This information is quickly matched against our Benefit Pay file to see if those who are still collecting income benefits have declared their work and earnings. By reporting their hirings promptly, participating employers help us detect abuse at an early stage and protect their contributions to the Employment Insurance Fund. For participating employers, it also means that the Requests for Payroll information forms you receive from us deal with more current payroll data. 

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Production of the first printout

To ensure technical compatibility, it is strongly recommended that the first hirings report be sent to the ROH program officer of HRSDC for verification purposes.

If there are problems with the first printout, the program officer will inform the employer of the necessary modifications. A revised report should be submitted as soon as possible.

If, on the other hand, the data is satisfactory, the employer will be notified to start submitting hiring information on a regular monthly basis.

Note:   Once it is confirmed that everything is in order, please notify your plants, branches, stores, or subsidiaries that all hirings are being reported centrally. It is possible that some of them are already reporting their hirings separately to HRSDC.

To avoid duplication, all your plants, branches, stores, and subsidiaries which are participating must then withdraw from the program at the earliest possible convenience. To do this, they can write a withdrawal request on the next Hiring Detail form they receive by explaining their reason for the request and return it to our Data Entry Centre in the self-addressed envelope provided.

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Monthly submission

The monthly submission of the hirings printout should be on-going, automatically. However, some employers may prefer to receive a reminder every month. If you want to get such a reminder, ask our recruiter. He/she will make the necessary arrangements to have a Hiring Details form sent to you every month. That form could then be attached to your printout.

Your monthly hirings printout should be sent to:

Service Canada Centre
Report on Hirings
P.O. Box 10,000 Stn. Main
Tracadie - Sheila, New Brunswick
E1X 4R6

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How the hiring data is used

When the Hiring printout has been processed the Social Insurance Numbers of the new or recalled employees are matched against our National EI Claim File to see if the employee has an Employment Insurance claim in any of the provinces or territories.  

If there is a match and the employee is still claiming EI benefits after the first day worked, a potential overpayment exists and an "observation" is created.

If an observation is created, the investigator contacts the employer to get payroll information and then contacts the claimant by letter or in person depending on the situation. Any overpayment of EI benefits will have to be repaid by the individual to HRSDC.

If abuse or fraud is involved, the claimant may have a penalty imposed under the Employment Insurance Act or he/she may be prosecuted in the courts.

Note: The actual "return to work" date of a recalled employee is to be reported as a new hiring if a Record of Employment was issued to him/her at time of the most recent lay-off.

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Concerning your employees

HRDC will only extract information on employees who are, or have been, EI clients. Information collected through the Report on Hirings program will be used in the administration of the HRSDC employment and benefit programs.

We strongly recommend that you advise your employees of your participation in the Report on Hirings program because it will act as a strong deterrent against the abuse of income benefits. For your convenience, a poster (PDF 1 page) is available and can be printed to inform employees of your participation in this control program. About PDF Files.

Some employers may prefer to advise their employees in the form of an article in their internal newsletter.

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What to watch for when programming

• Hiring date: Give us the "first day worked", not the date of hiring and when an employee is recalled, give us the latest "return to work" date.
• Period reported: Ensure that the hirings are reported only for the period covered by your monthly report, and not cumulatively as it would cause undesired duplication.
• Date format: The Date format for the hiring detail records is DAY/MONTH/YEAR (DDMMYY), because our Data Entry system is set up that way to accommodate the large number of employers who complete the Hiring Details form manually.
• Social Insurance Number (SIN): Any invalid SIN is rejected and cannot be matched against our National EI Claim file.

If the SIN is invalid, it is rejected and cannot be matched against our National EI Claim File. A formula is used "MOD-10" to ensure the validity of the SIN.  If your system does not already have a MOD-10 check, we suggest that you add it to your program.  This would allow your payroll and personnel offices to correct the file of those employees whose SIN are invalid.

Here is the procedure used by the "MOD-10" to validate the SIN. As an example, let's take the following SIN: 998 986 731.

1. Starting with the 1^st digit, add every 2nd digit: 9 9 8 9 8 6 7 3 1. Therefore, 9 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 1 = 33
   
   
2. Double and add the other digits. If the doubling results in more than 9, add the two digits in the result, i.e., 2 X 9 = 18, so 1 + 8 = 9.
   
   
3. Therefore, 9 9 6 3 = (1 + 8) + (1 + 8) + (1 + 2) + 6 = 27
   
   
4. Add the results of 1 and 2. Therefore, 33 + 27 = 60.
   
   
5. The results of this addition should be a multiple of 10. If it is not, the SIN is invalid and the correct one must be determined.

Errors on the Hirings printout

Sometimes, it is necessary to contact an employer due to errors on the hirings report — invalid data, i.e. wrong Header information or invalid detail records, etc. It is usually difficult and time consuming for our personnel to trace an employer’s central office or pay centre where the hirings printout was produced, for the purpose of trying to get the data corrected and resubmitted.

Therefore, we are asking you to indicate your name and address — the street name or P.O. Box number may be omitted if you so desire — in the area located in the upper right corner of the hirings printout.

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Header record

The Header record consists of five fields :

1. TC — transaction code: Always "45"
          
2. LO — local office #: 4 character field – Refers to a local office. The local office number is one of the key items we use to associate a hiring with the proper employer name and address. The local office number will be provided to you by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC).
            
3. Business Number: This number is a 15 character Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Business Number assigned for remittance purposes; it is a key item.
             
4. Pay Locator number: 4 character field – Code may be used to identify separate pay centres — plants, branches, stores, or subsidiaries — when the same employer number is used to report hirings for numerous pay centres. This key item must be indicated on each report if used. May be alpha and/or numeric.
    
5. Reporting period: 4 character field – Used to identify the period — month — for which the data is reported. Format: MMYY (month/year). Numeric.

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Detail record

Each detail record has three components:

• The Social Insurance Number of the person being hired. A 9 digit field – numeric;           
• The first day worked; the date on which the new employee commences work. Format: DD/MM/YY (day/month/year); and             
• The Badge or Payroll Number; a 15 character field – May be alpha and/or numeric. This information is optional. Its purpose is to help the employer trace an employee’s payroll file when he/she receives a Request for Payroll Information from HRDC.

Since there are many detail records, please use spacing as indicated in the example for the SIN and the hiring date. This will facilitate the Data Entry Operators’ work.

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Requests for Payroll Information from Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) 

An observation is produced when a potential overpayment of EI benefits exists after hirings are matched against our EI claim file.

The observation is sent to the local office where the claim is administered.

If the investigator requires payroll information, he/she will contact the employer’s pay centre at the address shown on the observation.

Consequently, employers who have a number of pay centres must decide whether they want the Requests for Payroll Information sent to their central pay office or to their regional pay centres.

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If Requests for Payroll lnformation is sent to your central pay office

Only that address will be registered on the Participating Employer file. Each month, you produce a single printout and send it to our Data Entry Centre at the following address:

Service Canada Centre
Report on Hirings
P.O. Box 10000 Stn. Main
Tracadie - Sheila, NB
E1X 4R6

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If you want the Requests for Payroll Information sent to the pay centres and want the hirings printouts to be produced from a central office

We will register each pay centre on our Participating Employer file using only the central office address. You may produce a separate hirings printout for each pay centre and send those printouts together to our Data Entry Centre for processing.

Each pay centre will have its own identifier — local office number, your Business Number, and Pay Locator number if needed.

Our Participating Employer file will therefore contain each pay centre address where you want our Requests for Payroll Information forms sent.

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If you want hirings to be reported by each pay centre

Each pay centre will produce its own hirings printout and send it to our Data Entry Centre. Each pay centre will be a unique entity, with its own identifier — local office number, your Business Number, and Pay Locator number if needed.

Please remember: the Service Canada local office number, the business number, and the Pay Locator number — when used — are key items which are used to associate a hiring with its related employer. These key identifiers must be indicated on each hirings printout Header record.

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Printing specifications

• The following paper size should preferably be used: Standard computer printouts — 14 1/2" x 8 1/2";
  Letter size — 8 1/2" x 11".

• The EMPLOYER NAME AND ADDRESS block is only required on the first page of the Hirings printout.
• The hirings should be printed six (6) lines per inch, and 10 characters per inch. This will allow for the necessary spacing between detail records for data entry purposes.
• 8 lines per inch double space is also acceptable.
• For quality control purposes all pages after the first page must be numbered.

Example of the required format of HRDC Report on Hirings 

TC	L.O.	BUSINESS NUMBER	PAYROLL OFFICE	PERIOD REPORTED
45	XXXX	XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX	XXXX	MM/YY

 

Return to:	Employer name
	Street
	City

EMPLOYEE SIN  — spacing after each group of 3 digits		FIRST DAY WORKED (DD/MM/YY)	BADGE/PAYROLL NUMBER — up to 15 characters
1 2 3 ect	134 759 038 118 654 376 257 597 307	19/03/96 26/03/96 01/03/96	49621  44211 44210

Business Number:  Enter your CCRA Business Number (BN) — 15 characters — used to report the employee's EI premiums to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). When there are multiple numbers to report payroll source deductions, please ensure the correct BN is used.

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How to register

If you feel that the savings are sufficient to offset the programming costs and, if you agree to participate, please call us at 1 800 615-9144, toll free.

For questions relating to the ROH program, you can contact the Miramichi Investigation Centre toll free at 1 800 615-9144.

For questions about the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), you should contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner:

• By mail: 112 Kent Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 1H3
• Internet: www.privcom.gc.ca
• E-mail enquiries: info@privcom.gc.ca
• Phone: 613 995-8210 or 1 800 282-1376, toll free
• Fax: 613 947-6850