Employment Law/Contract of Employment
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What is a contract of employment?
A contract is any agreement between two people that the law will enforce (the agreement does not have to be in writing). An employment contract is an agreement that an employee will work for an employer. All employees have contracts of employment with their employers whether or not they are in writing.
If I do not have a written contract, how do I know the terms of my employment?
When your employer hired you, he or she probably told you about the job, such as
- the work you would be doing;
- the hours you would be working;
- how much pay you would get;
- what holidays you would get.
These details are part of your contract of employment even though they are not written. Each detail is a term of the contract.
When I was hired, my employer did not mention holidays. Does that mean that holidays are not in my employment contract?
It depends whether employment standards law covers your job. If it does, then by law you get a minimum number of holidays. The law treats the agreement as though it included the minimum amount set out in employment standards law.
For more information, see Alberta Employment and Immigration.
If your job is not covered by employment standards law, you may need to discuss this with your employer.
Are there any employment contracts that have to be in writing?
Yes. Although most employment arrangements are contractual in nature, yet are not in writing. However, there are important exceptions. For example, under the Apprenticeship Program Regulation in Alberta, apprenticeship contracts have to be in a form acceptable to the Executive Director of the Apprenticeship Program, which probably means that they must be written.
Also, under an old law called the Statute of Frauds, contracts that cannot be completed within one year (in other words a contract of employment for a fixed term of more than one year) must be in writing. This does not mean that such a contract is invalid if not written, but it may be hard to enforce the contract as the Statute of Frauds can be used as a defence to enforcement.
It can be much harder to prove what the terms of an unwritten contract actually are, since the employer and employee may have different recollections of what was discussed and different understandings of what the contract terms were.
My family came to Canada from Asia and we are landed immigrants. Do I have to be a Canadian citizen to be able to get a job?
No. You can hold a job if you are a landed immigrant or have an employment authorization. You will need to obtain a social insurance number (SIN).
For information on how to get a SIN, see the external resources.
More Information
For more information, please see our External Resources
See Also
This page was last updated in June, 2006.
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