How Do I File a Complaint for Unpaid Wages in Canada?

The steps to file an unpaid wages complaint

1. Identify which employment standards law covers your job: federal, Ontario, or Alberta.
2. Confirm you are still within the filing deadline for that jurisdiction.
3. File your complaint through the correct government portal.
4. Cooperate with the investigation that follows.
5. Know how special situations, like employer bankruptcy or director liability, change the process.

Step 1: Identify which law covers your job

Most employees in Canada are covered by their province’s employment standards law. A smaller group works for federally regulated employers, whose labour standards fall under Part III of the Canada Labour Code, which “offer[s] a way for employees to recover unpaid wages and ensure other labour standards protections are upheld in their workplace.” If you’re not sure whether your job is federally or provincially regulated, this is worth confirming first, because the complaint goes to a different body depending on the answer, and filing with the wrong one wastes the time you have before your deadline runs out.

• Federal: Canada Labour Code, Part III, filed with the Labour Program.
• Ontario: Employment Standards Act, 2000, filed with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.
• Alberta: Employment Standards Code, filed with Alberta Employment Standards.

Step 2: Check your deadline before doing anything else

The filing deadline is the single detail most likely to end a claim before it starts, and it differs by jurisdiction.

Step 3: File through the correct portal

Each jurisdiction has its own filing channel, and each accepts complaints online.

• Federally regulated employees file a labour standards complaint with the Labour Program.
• Ontario employees may file a claim online with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development if they believe the Employment Standards Act “is being violated.”
• Alberta employees submit their complaint online at no cost.

Have your employment details ready before you start the form: your employer’s legal name, your dates of employment, and the pay period(s) you say are unpaid, since the deadline calculations above run from those dates.

Step 4: What happens after you file

Once your complaint is in, the relevant authority reviews it against the deadline and then investigates.

• Federally, the Labour Program “will accept and investigate your complaint if filed within 6 months from the last day your employer was required to pay you wages or other amounts.”
• In Ontario, “if you file a claim within the two-year limit an employment standards officer will investigate the claim.”
• In Alberta, Employment Standards similarly reviews and investigates complaints submitted through its online process.

Step 5: Situations that change the process

A few circumstances shift where or how you file:

• Employer bankruptcy or insolvency (Alberta): Alberta Employment Standards “has no jurisdiction over these cases,” and an employee must instead apply to the federal Wage Earner Protection Program.
• Corporate director liability (Alberta): directors of a corporation “are personally responsible to employees of the corporation for unpaid wages earned during a period not exceeding 6 months,” and the Director of Employment Standards may issue a certificate of liability against them.
• Incomplete or errored federal complaints: the Labour Program “may extend the deadline for filing a complaint if your previous complaint was incomplete or contained an error,” so a rejected first attempt doesn’t necessarily end your options.

Employees in provinces other than Ontario and Alberta are covered by their own province’s employment standards legislation, which sets its own deadlines and filing process; check that province’s employment standards body directly.