Employment Standards Complaints

If you have an employment standards concern and were not able to resolve it with your employer, you can file a formal or anonymous complaint. If you are making a complaint on behalf of someone else you can file an anonymous complaint.

It does not cost anything to make a complaint or talk to someone at Employment Standards.

In some cases, there may be reason to make a complaint with another provincial or federal worker protection agency. If we find this to be the case, we may suggest this to you or ask for your consent to share your complaint with that other agency. Examples of other agencies include our Occupational Health and Safety Branch, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Immigration and Career Training or federal immigration authorities.

If you are unsure if your complaint is regarding an employment standards issue, or if you have any questions prior to submitting a complaint, contact the Employment Standards Contact Centre at 1-800-667-1783 or email: employmentstandards@gov.sk.ca.

Formal Complaint

A formal complaint process should be used if:

• you would like to request an investigation into a specific employment standards concern;
• you need help to recover unpaid wages you are entitled under Part II of The Saskatchewan Employment Act; or
• you have a non-monetary concern, such as not receiving a work schedule or alleged discriminatory actions.

If the claim is for unpaid wages, you must file the formal complaint within 12 months of the last day that your wages are payable; often 14 days from your final day of employment.

Evidence, such as statements of earnings (pay stubs), employment agreements, records of hours worked, etc., included with formal complaints will help with the investigation.

Anonymous Complaint

Anonymous complaints can be filed by anyone, including an employee or a third party such as a parent, friend, or a member of the community. The anonymous complaint process best meets the needs of employees who are and want to remain employed with an employer, and want a workplace employment standards issue addressed and corrected. An anonymous complaint can involve monetary or non-monetary issues. Written complaints with some supporting evidence are preferred.

Upon receiving an anonymous complaint, Employment Standards will contact and work with the employer to determine if there is non-compliance with employment standards and to correct the issue. Compliance is usually corrected going forward to ensure from this point on the provisions of The Saskatchewan Employment Act will be followed in the workplace.

The complainant's name will be kept confidential, unless disclosure is required by legal authority.

Formal employment standards complaints can be submitted using our online formal complaint form by clicking the yellow box below (recommended), or by downloading a formal complaint form.

Make a formal employment standards complaint

A downloaded formal complaint form can be sent by email to employmentstandards@gov.sk.ca, or dropped off, mailed or faxed to the Employment Standards office closest to you. Our office locations can be found in the government directory.

Please include any supporting documentation with the complaint.

To help complete the complaint form, employees will need the following information:

• the employer's name, address, telephone number, postal code and the name of the employee's supervisor;
• the employee's address, postal code and phone number;
• the date the employee started work and the date the employee ended work (if no longer employed);
• the employee's wage rate, regular hours of work per day and per week (if it is a wage complaint);
• if available, a paycheque/paystub or a statement of earnings if pay is direct deposited (if it is a wage complaint); and
• details about the claim (for example, if a wage complaint, the dates for which wages are being claimed and the amount).

Generally, employees have up to 12 months after the date wages were due to file a wage claim.

Recovery of wages is limited to wages payable within either the 12 months before the claim is made or the 12 months after the end of employment. Refer to section 2-89 of The Saskatchewan Employment Act for more details.

While most work in Saskatchewan is provincially regulated, not all workplace complaints should be initially filed with Employment Standards at Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety. For example:

• employees in a unionized workplace may need to file a complaint with their union, as the issue may be covered in the collective bargaining agreement;
• employees working outside of Saskatchewan should file a complaint with the employment standards agency of the province where that work is performed; and
• employees working in an industry regulated by the federal government (for example employers involved in First Nations government activities, banking, air transportation, telephone and cable systems, grain elevators and seed mills, uranium mining and processing, or licensed interprovincial trucking) should file a complaint with the Federal Labour Program (Employment and Social Development Canada).

In addition, independent contractors are not covered by Part II of The Saskatchewan Employment Act as they are in business for themselves and are not employees under this legislation.

Employees trying to obtain a record of employment (ROE) should contact Service Canada.

Please call Employment Standards at 1-800-667-1783 if you have questions or concerns about making a complaint, including determining which regulatory body to file a complaint with.

Please note that the employer has 14 days to provide final payment of wages. Therefore, some claims are valid only after that 14-day period has elapsed.

Anonymous employment standards complaints can be submitted using our online formal complaint form by clicking the yellow box below (recommended), or by downloading an anonymous complaint form.

Make an anonymous employment standards complaint

Anonymous employment standards complaint forms can be downloaded and submitted to Employment Standards.

A downloaded anonymous complaint form can be sent by email to employmentstandards@gov.sk.ca, or dropped off, mailed or faxed to the nearest Employment Standards office. Please include any supporting documentation with the complaint.

If the claim is to recover unpaid wages, the employee must file a formal complaint. While some wage correction occurs as a result of anonymous claims, wages are often adjusted going forward, rather than retroactively.

An employment standards officer reviews the complaint form and may call the employee for more information. The officer will also contact the employer and may inspect the employer's payroll records, talk with other employees and gather other evidence.

Employers cannot take discriminatory action against an employee for reporting unlawful activity to a supervisor, the police, or the government, or for seeking compliance with the law. This includes filing an employment standards complaint.

If there is a complaint alleging discriminatory action, the onus is on the employer to show their actions were not taken because the employee reported alleged wrongdoing;

If an employer is successfully prosecuted for taking discriminatory action, the court may order the employer to reinstate the employee in their former employment and pay the employee their wages retroactive to the date that the discriminatory action was taken.

If the employment standards officer finds that wages are owed to the employee, the officer will let the employer know and will try to obtain payment from the employer. The employer will have an opportunity to respond to the inspection report, which outlines and explains the wages owed, and provide additional information to show wages have been paid or some lesser amount is owed. If an employer offers to settle a claim by paying less than what the officer asked for, the officer will tell the employee. The employee then has to decide whether to accept the amount offered.

If the complaint is not resolved, the Director of Employment Standards may issue a document called a 'wage assessment,' which is a legal order for the employer to pay wages. Employers and employees may appeal wage assessments through a hearing by an independent adjudicator, who will review each side of the disagreement and decide on the wages owed.