Employment Standards Complaint

Do you need to make a complaint?

While most employers follow Alberta’s Employment Standards, some do not. If you feel an employer has not met these standards, you can submit a complaint here. Some reasons you may want to submit a complaint include:

  • You believe you have not been paid correctly for:

    • Wages or overtime pay

    • Vacation pay

    • Termination pay

    • General holiday pay

    • Unauthorized Payroll Deduction

  • You did not get an equivalent job after returning from a job-protected leave

  • You did not receive a job protected leave that you believe you are entitled to

  • You were terminated without sufficient notice or pay

  • There are deductions on your paycheque you didn’t expect

  • You believe you have a complaint regarding:

    • Rest Periods (Breaks)

    • Pay Statements

    • Days of Rest (Days Off)

    • General Holiday Entitlement

    • Layoff Period

    • Did not receive payment within 10 days

Talking with your employer is always the first step before you submit a complaint. If your issue cannot be resolved, here’s what the complaint process looks like:

What's Wrong?

Is your pay cheque not right?
Are you missing overtime pay, or vacation pay, or some other kind of pay?
Did you not get an equivalent job after you came back from a job-protected leave.
You did not receive a job protected leave that you believe you are entitled to.
Are there deductions on your pay cheque you did not expect?

Do you qualify?

Find out if you qualify to submit a complaint with Employment Standards by answering some questions. Employment Standards cannot help with some issues.

Create an account.

If you qualify, create an account by filling in your personal contact information. You will need this to proceed with submitting a complaint.

Put it in writing.

Complete your complaint by filling in employer and employment history information, estimating any outstanding payments, and describing the problem in writing.

Send a letter to your employer.

Complete and send a Request for Payment letter to your employer.

Give your employer time to respond.

Wait ten days for a response from your employer.

Submit your complaint.

If you do not receive a response from your employer, or are not able to resolve the issue, submit your saved complaint to Employment Standards for review and investigation.

Before you start, make sure you have all the information you need. This includes:

  • Your hourly wage and/or annual salary (required)
  • Your employer's address (required)
  • At least two ways to contact you (required)
  • Pay statements (highly recommended)
  • Timesheets or records of hours worked (highly recommended)
  • Record of Employment (recommended)
  • Overtime banking agreement if one is in place (recommended)
  • Averaging arrangement if one is in place (recommended)
  • Documentation related to job-protected leaves (recommended)
  • Any additional information you feel will add to your case (recommended)

Get started on your Employment Standards complaint.

Get Started
If you already have an account sign in here.