Act respecting labour standards Chapter IV - Larbour standards (Section 39.1 to 97)

Status of employee

An employee is entitled to retain the status of employee where the changes made by the employer to the mode of operation of the enterprise do not change that status into that of a contractor without employee status.

Complaint

Where the employee is in disagreement with the employer regarding the consequences of the changes on the status of the employee, the employee may file a complaint in writing with the Commission des normes du travail. On receipt of the complaint, the Commission shall make an inquiry and the first paragraph of section 102 and sections 103, 104 and 106 to 110 shall apply, with the necessary modifications.

Commission's refusal

If the Commission refuses to take action following a complaint, the employee may, within 30 days of the Commission’s decision under section 107 or 107.1, make a written request to the Commission for the referral of the complaint to the Commission des relations du travail.

Commission des relations du travail

At the end of the inquiry, if the Commission agrees to take action, it shall refer the complaint without delay to the Commission des relations du travail for it to rule on the consequences of the changes on the status of the employee.

Decision

The Commission des relations du travail shall render its decision within 60 days of the filing of the complaint at its offices.

1979, c. 45, s. 86; 2002, c. 80, s. 53.

Interpretation

An employer is prohibited from changing the status of an employee into that of a contractor without employee status (self-employed worker) when the effect of the changes that he makes to the mode of operation of his undertaking does not really alter this status. See the interpretation of section 1 ALS as to the criteria related to the notion of employee.

Recourse

An employee who considers that the changes do not result in a change to his employee status can submit a written complaint to the Commission. The complaint is not subject to a specific deadline, but must be made within a reasonable time period after the employer changed the employee’s status. The Commission will then make inquiry and if it agrees to follow up on the complaint, it will refer the complaint to the Commission des relations du travail.

An employee whose complaint is rejected by the Commission can avail himself of the right to review stipulated in section 107.1 ALS. When the Commission decides not to take action, the employee may, in the following 30 days, ask the Commission to refer his complaint to the Commission des relations du travail.

In all cases, the Commission des relations du travail has 60 days from the filing of the complaint at its offices to make its decision.