Workplace Complaints

Before making a complaint, you may want to try to resolve the issue with your employer first. If that does not work, you can make a complaint to Employment Standards. You can either make a formal complaint or an anonymous complaint. Complaints must be made within 1 year from the date the problem occurred.

For every complaint, it is important to include evidence that supports your claim. This could be things like pay stubs or records of hours worked. Employment Standards will investigate your complaint and may ask you for more information. They can also look at business records and talk to your employer or other employees.

The federal government regulates some employers such as banks and telecoms. For these employers, you should make your complaint to the federal Labour Program.

You can make a formal complaint to deal with something your employer has done. This kind of complaint may be filed while you are still working for your employer or after you leave the job. Some examples of things you might make a complaint about are:

• not being paid the correct amount or on time
• discrimination
• not getting work breaks
• not getting pay stubs

You may choose to make an anonymous complaint and have your name kept private. Anyone can make an anonymous complaint. You include your name when you make the complaint, but it is kept confidential. In this situation, the focus will be on correcting issues with the employer for the future and not on a particular incident.

Various things can happen when you make a complaint. Employment Standards can:

• decide that the complaint does not have merit
• work with your employer to make changes
• in the case of a formal complaint, order your employer to pay any wages that they owe to you
• take collection action against your employer if they still do not pay
• provide information and education about employment standards to your employer