Hours of Work/Overtime Rules

June 6, 2007

There has been considerable media coverage recently about the class action suit seeking compensation for unpaid overtime on behalf of front-line customer service employees of the CIBC.  AMAPCEO’s law firm, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, is acting for the bank employees, who are not unionized.  

This case offers an opportunity to remind AMAPCEO-represented employees of their hours of work/overtime provisions.  

Major improvements to the rules governing hours of work for AMAPCEO-represented employees were introduced in August of 2005.  The overtime provisions now exceed those in the Employment Standards Act.  AMAPCEO employees are entitled to be paid compensating leave at the rate of one hour for every hour worked between 36.25 and 44 hours per week and 1.5 hours (time-and-a-half) for each hour worked in excess of 44 hours per week or on the weekend or on a scheduled day off.  Any time worked over fifteen minutes is rounded up to the next half hour.  If the leave is not taken by the end of the calendar year in which it is earned, you are entitled to have any compensating time paid out as a lump sum cash payment.   

In its Interpretive Bulletin on hours of work, our Employer has -for the first time- clearly stated that “managers cannot request or permit employees to work overtime without compensation…”.  (Emphasis added; for the full text, please see the link below to the Interpretive Bulletin, which is otherwise available only for managers on the “Manager’s Map” section of the OPS Intranet).  

It is important that AMAPCEO employees insist that this provision of the Collective Agreement be followed in all workplaces.  If necessary, feel free to draw your manager’s attention to the Employer’s own bulletin.

Please remember as well that you are also entitled to claim overtime for work-related travel outside normal working hours. 

For further details, please consult:  

Article 46 of the Collective Agreement

Employer’s Interpretive Bulletin for managers.