Hours of Work, Rest Periods & Days of Work

Maximum Daily Hours

An employee's work hours must fall within a 12-hour period in a workday unless an unforeseeable emergency occurs, or the Director of Employment Standards issues a permit authorizing extended hours of work. This means, for example, that an employee who begins work at 8 a.m. cannot work past 8 p.m.

Shift Changes and Rest Between Shifts

An employee must be notified in writing about a shift change 24 hours beforehand. Employees must get at least eight hours rest between shifts.

Daily Rest Periods

During each shift in excess of five consecutive hours of work, an employee is entitled to at least a one-half hour break, except where it is unreasonable or impossible.  The break can be paid, or unpaid, at the employer's discretion.

This means that where a shift is less than 5 hours in length the employer is not obliged to provide a rest period. Where the shift is longer than 5 hours (e.g. 8 or 9 hours) the obligation of the employer is to provide at least 30 minutes of break time sometime during the shift. The 30 minutes can be taken in one unbroken period but may be provided as two 15-minute or three 10-minute breaks.

This, of course, is the minimum standard, and in practice for a full day shift the amount of break time provided is frequently more than the specified minimum.

Weekly Rest Days

 An employer must give an employee:

• one day of rest each week
• two consecutive days of rest in each period of two consecutive weeks
• three consecutive days of rest in each period of three consecutive weeks
• four consecutive days of rest in each period of four consecutive weeks.

After 24 consecutive days of work, employees must be provided with at least four consecutive days of rest.

Compressed Work Week

A compressed work week is a scheduling of hours of work that:

• has employees working longer hours each day, and
• is balanced by having employees working fewer days each week.

The arrangement must meet the following criteria:

• Employees may not be scheduled to work longer than 12 hours per day.
• Hours worked in excess of the scheduled daily hours, and/or in excess of 44 hours per week, are overtime hours. (Exceptions may apply where different industry hours are set by the Employment Standards Regulation.)
• Where the compressed work week is part of a multi-week cycle the average weekly hours in the schedule cannot exceed 44.

A compressed work week can be implemented by an employer at any time by preparing a schedule that meets the required criteria for a compressed work week arrangement. No permission from Employment Standards is required.

 

Document Title and Description	Date (dd/mm/yy)	Format
Examples of Compressed Work Week Schedules	22/11/01
Applying Minimum Employment Standards to a Compressed Work Week