BC Overtime Policy
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BC Overtime Policy

Topic 100-BC     Importance: High

Purpose

 Provides guidance to managers and employees on how the amount of time worked beyond work schedule will be compensated and administered.

Benefits
  • Control labour costs by managing overtime expenses.
  • Consistent, fair and accurate payment of overtime.
  • Transparency on how overtime will be paid.
  • Identification of teams/departments with high overtime prompting a review of processes to achieve a more efficient operation. 

Risks
  • Non compliance with legislation governing overtime payment.
  • Impact on expenses due to non-monitoring of overtime.
  • Complaints of unfair and wrongful payments impacting employee morale.
  • Frequent and excessive overtime is not good for the health of employees. This policy helps in the identification of teams/department with high overtime.

HR Expertise

 Minimal. Payment of overtime is strictly regulated by the Employment Standards Act. 

Time/Effort

Minimal as overtime rates are clearly spelt out in the Employment Standards Act. 

Dependencies

 This is a stand alone policy without any reference to other parts of the Employee Handbook.

Key Decisions
  • Procedures to put in place to curb excessive and abuse of overtime.

Key Approvals
  • Highest level in the leadership team
  • Highest level in Finance

Additional Resources

 Employment Standards Act: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/hours/overtime-pay

Additional Tips

 Payment on overtime is strictly regulated. To manage excessive payment of overtime, a company should closely monitor frequency of overtime requests and put in place tight guidelines such as when overtime can be performed, who has the overtime approval authority and which group of labour will be used to perform the overtime (balancing pay grades and expertise required). 

Getting Started

Engage with the leadership team on the following:

  • Explanation of how overtime is paid according to the Employment Standards Act.
  • Pros and Cons of overtimes, including impact of excessive overtime on employees' health & safety. To provide the financial impact, get from Finance the current overtime expenses and impact on the bottom line. 
  • Procedures on how to curb or manage overtime.

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