Over Time Rules for Contractors

Landscape Ontario Snowposium 2024

Why are We Talking About Overtime?

• Our industry portrays paying overtime negatively.
• But the rules are clear: we need to pay overtime
• We ignore the rules because:
  • We think the extra cost will keep us from being competitive against companies who don’t pay overtime
  • We think it will affect profitability
  • We don’t understand what’s at risk
• Our industry is slow to change (Landscape Ontario has been writing and talking about overtime since 2015!)
• We’ve been using work-arounds to get out of paying overtime
  • Banked hours
  • Putting field staff on salary
• Owners don’t have the time to look into it

Why We Should Promote Overtime

• It’s not as costly as you think
  1. Create some scenarios from last season’s payroll reports to see what you would have paid last season
  2. The staff generally do not want to work more than 44 hours per week in the summer months (the weather and holidays limit the number of weeks they actual work a full 5 days a week)
  3. The changing weather patterns for Ontario snow contractors has limited the amount of back-to-back snow events which eliminates the need for OT

2. It’s the law
3. It’s a recruitment tool
4. You don’t want to deal with a payroll audit

If You Do Not Pay Overtime

1. Open yourself up to future litigation
2. Case law does not favour the contractor
3. A huge red flag for potential purchasers of your business

Implementing Overtime

1. Complete a case study from last year’s payroll records
2. Hire more people in the peak season when hours are required (rolling labour budget)
3. Invest in more admin time
4. Digital time sheets with specific tasks
5. Managers need to be held accountable for crew times and schedules
6. Update employee contracts and policies/handbooks
7. Talk about overtime during seasonal kick-off meetings

Winter OT Rules

Road Maintenance Act – https://www.ontario.ca/document/industries-and-jobs-exemptions-or-special-rules/manufacturing-construction-and-mining#section-8

This does not apply to you if you work in road construction work or at road construction sites. Road construction work includes the repair, alteration and demolition of roads.

This does apply to you if you work at road maintenance sites (including parking lots, bridges and tunnels) doing road maintenance work (including snow ploughing).

 Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

• daily or weekly limits on hours of work
• daily rest periods
• time off between shifts
• weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
• severance pay
• public holidays or public holiday pay if you have been either:
  • employed for less than five years and you receive 7% or moreof your hourly wages for vacation pay or holiday pay
  • employed for five years or longer and you receive 7% or moreof your hourly wages for vacation pay or holiday pay

 Streets, highways or parking lots

If you work in the maintenance of streets, highways or parking lots, you are entitled to overtime pay for each hour worked over 55 hours in a work week.

If you work less than 55 hours in a week, your employer can carry over the difference between the number of hours you actually worked and the 55-hour overtime threshold. The difference can be applied to the following week to increase the overtime threshold.

For example, if you work 50 hours in one week and your overtime threshold is 55 hours, your employer can carry over 5 hours into the following week, increasing the overtime threshold for that week from 55 to 60 hours.

The maximum hours that can be carried forward is 22 hours.

Summer OT Rules

• 44 hours

Exemptions:  

• Landscape gardeners
• Pool installations and maintenance
• Agriculture activities (retail and wholesale growers and trade sales, sod)