Record of Employment
One of your payroll obligations is to create a Record of Employment (ROE) for your employees when there is an interruption in earnings. It is the document used by Service Canada when someone has applied for EI (this includes maternity leave). Some employers are not aware of their requirement to file a ROE, which can be costly. As with everything government, there is a fine for not filing ROEs on time. They can charge the employer $2,000 or impose jail time of up to 6 months or both.
If you are using a payroll program, it will assist you in the filing of your ROE. It will automatically fill out all the company and employee information. As well as all the blocks in section 15, which can be found below. This post will cover all the blocks that you will manually need to fill out in the payroll program. If you do not have a payroll program, you can find a more in depth guide to filling out an ROE here.
Blocks on the ROE
Block 6 – Pay Period Type
The frequency in which you pay your employees, for example, bi-weekly, monthly, or semi-monthly. If your employee is commission only, you would put weekly in this block.
Block 10- First Day Worked
The day the employee started with your company. It is important to note, that if you have issued a previous ROE for this employee, that the first day worked is the first day worked after their previous leave, not their first day with the company.
Block 11 – Last Day for Which Paid
This block is where you put their last day of employment with your company. It may not necessarily be the last day in which they physically worked. If they took vacation pay, or paid sick leave, it will be the date that these payments ended.
Block 12 – Final Pay Period Ending Date
This block corresponds with block 11. You need to enter in the last day of the pay period that they employees last day falls into.
Block 14 – Expected Date of Recall
If you have laid off an employee for a set amount of time, or they have gone on Maternity leave, you can put the date that you expect them to come back to work in this block. If you do not expect them to return to your company, you can click off not returning.
Block 15
Block 15 is comprised of 3 areas:
Block 15A – Total Insurable Hours
Block 15B – Total Insurable Earnings
Block 15C – Insurable Earnings by Pay Period
As mentioned above, a payroll program will fill in these sections for you. If you need to do it manually you can follow the link above, or talk to a payroll professional.
Block 16 – Reason for Issuing ROE
In this block, you need to inform Service Canada for the reason you are issuing the ROE. Common codes can be found in the chart below.
| Code | Reason |
| A | Shortage of work/ end of contract season |
| D | Illness or Injury |
| E | Quit |
| F | Maternity Leave |
| G | Retirement |
| J | Returning to school for apprentice training |
| M | Dismissal |
| N | Leave of Absence |
| P | Parental |
One less used code that many employers do not know about it code K, Other. If you change payroll service providers, you need to file an ROE for your employees. You would use Code K, Other/Change in Service provider.
Block 17A – Vacation Pay
Employees are entitled to vacation pay. In this block you need to tell Service Canada how you have paid it out to them. The two most common methods are:
-Included with each pay
-Paid because no longer working – if you use this explanation, you will need to enter the amount you have paid out to the employee
Block 17C – Other Monies
You use this section if you have paid out money to an employee, other than vacation pay, at their time of interrupted earnings. For all these reasons, you will need to enter in the amount paid out to them.
Some examples of monies in this section are: pay in lieu of notice, severance pay, or bonuses.
Deadlines for filing ROEs
If you are preparing a paper ROE, the filing deadlines are within 5 calendar days of either:
- The first day of the interruption to earnings
- The day the employer learnt about the upcoming interruption
If you are preparing an electronic ROE, the filing deadline is whichever of the following comes first:
- 5 calendar days after the end of the last pay period
- 15 calendar days after the first day of the interruption to earnings
Web ROE
All employers should sign up for Web ROE. This allows you to file and amend ROEs electronically. It is the faster, and more efficient way to do ROEs. You can find a link to Web ROE here.
If you have any questions, you can contact the Service Canada Employer line at 1-80-367-5693. Or talk to your accountant or bookkeeper.
