Record of Employment (ROE): A Guide for Employers

What an ROE is for

A Record of Employment is the form Service Canada uses to work out whether someone qualifies for Employment Insurance and how much they get. It is not a tax document and it is not a pay stub; it is a statement of insurable hours and earnings over a fixed lookback, plus the reason the employment stopped or paused. Every employer who pays insurable earnings has to issue one whenever an employee has an interruption of earnings, regardless of whether the employee intends to claim EI.

A late or wrong ROE delays someone's benefits at the moment they have no income. An employer who knowingly enters a false reason can be prosecuted under section 135 of the Employment Insurance Act, which carries a fine of $200 to $5,000 and up to six months' imprisonment. Service Canada's guide describes misrepresenting the reason as a serious offence.

What triggers one

Under section 14 of the EI Regulations, an interruption of earnings happens when an employee has, or is expected to have, seven consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings from that employer. Quitting, dismissal, layoff, and unpaid leave all qualify. It also happens without a break in employment when weekly earnings fall below 60% of the regular amount because of illness, injury, or quarantine, pregnancy, caring for a newborn or newly adopted child, or caring for a critically ill or injured family member; the regulation phrases it as a reduction of more than 40%. Starting to receive wage-loss insurance payments is a third trigger.

Reduced hours for business reasons do not count unless they produce a full seven-day gap. A part-timer who normally works three days a week and drops to two has not had an interruption of earnings.

Deadlines

The deadline depends on how the ROE is filed. Almost every employer now files electronically through ROE Web, through payroll software that submits a payroll extract, or through ROE SAT for high-volume filers. For electronic ROEs on weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly pay, the ROE is due within 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption occurs. On monthly pay or 13 pay periods a year, it is due at the earlier of 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period or 15 calendar days after the first day of the interruption. A paper ROE is due 5 calendar days after the first day of the interruption or the day the employer becomes aware of it, whichever is later.

Electronic filing has a second consequence: no paper copy is required. Service Canada's guide says employers who submit electronically no longer need to print one, because employees do not need it to apply. Employees can view and print the ROE in their My Service Canada Account, and Service Canada suggests employers provide a copy as a courtesy when asked. Send the PDF anyway, with the final pay, to anyone leaving who might claim EI; it is the fastest way for them to check the numbers, and it heads off the calls asking where the ROE is.

The blocks that matter

Block 11 is the last day for which the employee was paid, which is not always the last day worked; a final day that falls inside a paid notice period pushes the date out. Block 12 is the final pay period end date. Block 16 is the reason, chosen from a fixed list: A for shortage of work or layoff, B for strike or lockout, D for illness or injury, E for quit, F for maternity, G for retirement, H for Work-Sharing, J for apprentice training, K for other, M for dismissal or suspension, N for leave of absence, P for parental, and Z for compassionate care or family caregiver. Code K requires an explanation in Block 18, and Service Canada follows up on it.

Block 15A reports total insurable hours; Block 15B reports total insurable earnings; Block 15C breaks those earnings down by pay period. The lookback lengths are the part people get wrong, because they differ. Block 15A and the electronic Block 15C reach back 53 weekly, 27 biweekly, 25 semi-monthly, 13 monthly, or 14 thirteen-period pay periods. Block 15B, and the paper ROE's shorter 15C, use 27 weekly, 14 biweekly, 13 semi-monthly, 7 monthly, or 7 thirteen-period periods. Payroll software handles this automatically from the pay history, which is one reason an employer who has been issuing consistent pay stubs finds the ROE routine and one who has not finds it painful.

Block 17 lists money paid because of the separation: 17A vacation pay, 17B statutory holiday pay for days after the Block 11 date, and 17C other amounts such as severance, termination pay, and bonuses. Where those amounts are insurable they also belong in 15B and 15C. Block 17 is the block to check twice, because Service Canada allocates vacation pay and severance paid on separation to the weeks after the layoff, which delays the one-week waiting period and the start of the former employee's benefits.

What to check before you submit

Compare three things against the pay stubs you issued: the last day paid in Block 11, the total insurable earnings in Block 15B against the sum of the same pay periods on the stubs, and the reason code in Block 16. A code E for someone you laid off, or a 15B total that is short a pay period, changes the claim and comes back to you as an amendment. Service Canada tells claimants to look for the ROE in My Service Canada Account and to contact it if nothing has arrived within the deadline, so a late ROE also tends to come back to you, through the employee or through Service Canada. The pay stub to T4 guide explains which stub lines are insurable earnings and which are not.

If something is wrong, you issue an amended ROE. Before a paper ROE has been handed out, corrections can be struck out and initialed; after distribution, or for any electronic ROE, you file an amendment through ROE Web (or by contacting the Employer Contact Centre), completing every block again rather than only the changed ones. Only the employer can amend an ROE; an employee who disputes one takes it up with Service Canada, which may then contact you.

Records

Employers must keep the payroll records behind each ROE for six years after the year they relate to, in paper or electronic form. Service Canada keeps the ROEs themselves for eleven years and will supply copies to an employer who requests them with the payroll account number and employee details. For a small employer, the practical version of this rule is that the pay stubs issued each period are the ROE's source data: insurable hours and earnings per period, vacation pay and bonuses on their own lines, and a pay date on each one. A Canadian pay stub generator keeps every stub you generate in your history, so the ROE is a matter of copying the figures across; enter the prior year-to-date gross each period and the running totals on those stubs stay right as well.