Glossary - Employment and Work
Quarantine means that you are being kept away from other people because you may have been exposed to someone with a serious illness.
The Record of Employment is a form that your employer must fill out every time you experience an interruption of earnings. The Record of Employment has information like how long you worked for your employer, how many hours you worked, and how much money you earned. Your employer has to choose from a list of reasons why you stopped working or stopped being paid. For example, you might have quit, got fired, been laid off, or be taking a leave of absence from work.
In Criminal Law, Employment and Work, Human Rights
A record suspension used to be called a pardon. If you have a criminal record, you may be able to apply to the Parole Board of Canada for a record suspension. If you get a record suspension, your criminal record is not erased. But it is set aside and you can say you don’t have one.
There are rules about how long you have to wait to apply and what you need to show for your application to be successful.
You might qualify for regular EI benefits when you lose your job or stop working for reasons beyond your control.
The Employment Standards Act says that regular wages means wages you earn, not including any of the following:
- overtime pay
- holiday pay
- premium pay
- pay for a domestic or sexual violence leave
- termination pay
- severance pay
When your employer punishes you for trying to use your legal rights, this is called a reprisal. It’s against the law for an employer to do this. An employer might punish you by:
- suspending you,
- changing your work,
- changing your shifts or reducing your hours, or
- giving you a warning or threatening you.
Severance pay is not the same as termination pay or pay in lieu of notice. The Employment Standards Act gives some people the right to severance pay when they lose their jobs.
You get severance pay only if you’ve worked at least 5 years for your employer and:
- your employer pays wages of at least $2.5 million a year, or
- at least 50 people will be losing their jobs within a 6-month period because the business is being cut back.
The basic rule is that severance pay is one week’s pay for each year you’ve worked for your employer, up to 26 weeks.
In Employment and Work, Income Assistance
A Social Insurance Number (SIN) is a 9-digit number that you need to work in Canada or to use government programs and get benefits.
You might qualify for special EI benefits if you need time off work for certain reasons. Special EI benefits include maternity, parental, sickness, compassionate care, and parents of critically ill children benefits.
A T4 statement is an information slip prepared by your employer with information you need to complete your annual income tax return. It lists things like wages your employer paid you, and how much they took from your pay for Employment Insurance, income tax, and Canada Pension Plan.
