Record of Employment in Canada: guide for foreign employers using an EOR
Record of Employment in Canada
A Record of Employment (ROE) is a Canadian government payroll form that an employer must issue when an employee stops working or has an interruption of earnings. It is used by Service Canada to determine eligibility for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits.
The ROE is not the same as Employer of Record (EOR). ROE is a specific Canadian payroll document. EOR is a service model where a third-party company becomes the registered employer to hire workers on behalf of a foreign company.
This page explains what the ROE requirement means for a foreign employer using an EOR, and what happens to the ROE obligation when an EOR is involved.
What triggers an ROE
An employer must issue an ROE when an employee has an interruption of earnings. Service Canada defines an interruption of earnings as occurring when a period of seven or more consecutive calendar days passes with no work and no insurable earnings, or when an employee’s salary falls below 60% of their normal weekly earnings due to illness, injury, quarantine, pregnancy, parental obligations, or compassionate care.
The most common triggers are:
- The end of employment (termination, resignation, end of term)
- An unpaid leave of absence of seven days or more
- Parental or pregnancy leave
- A layoff
When any of these events occurs, the employer (or the EOR acting as employer) must issue the ROE within prescribed deadlines.
Payroll contributions that link to the ROE
The ROE records insurable earnings and insurable hours. These are the same earnings and hours on which EI premiums are calculated. The payroll contribution basics below define the EI premium rates that underlie the insurable earnings figure on the ROE.
Termination and the ROE deadline
When employment ends, the ROE deadline depends on how the employer pays employees. For employers who issue paper ROEs, the deadline is five calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption of earnings occurs. For employers who submit ROEs electronically through Service Canada’s ROE Web, the deadline is five calendar days after the end of the pay period or five calendar days after the last day of work, whichever is later.
The termination notice and severance obligations that trigger the ROE are jurisdiction-specific.
Federal (Canada Labour Code s.230): Federally regulated employers must give written notice or wages in lieu at the employee's regular rate for regular hours, scaling with tenure: 2 weeks (3 months to under 3 years), 3 weeks (3 to under 4 years), 4 weeks (4 to under 5 years), 5 weeks (5 to under 6 years), 6 weeks (6 to under 7 years), 7 weeks (7 to under 8 years), 8 weeks (8 or more years). The employer must also provide a written statement of vacation benefits, wages, severance pay, and other benefits on or before the last day of employment. The Canada Labour Code does not contain a separate statutory severance pay concept analogous to Ontario; the notice/wages-in-lieu scale is the sole statutory minimum for most federal employees (unjust dismissal remedies under CLC Part III apply separately to employees with 12 or more months of service).
Ontario: Two distinct and cumulative obligations exist under the ESA 2000.
(1) Termination pay (ESA ss.54-62): employees with 3 or more months of continuous service are entitled to written notice or pay in lieu on the following scale: less than 1 year = 1 week; 1 to under 3 years = 2 weeks; 3 to under 4 years = 3 weeks; 4 to under 5 years = 4 weeks; 5 to under 6 years = 5 weeks; 6 to under 7 years = 6 weeks; 7 to under 8 years = 7 weeks; 8 or more years = 8 weeks.
Mass termination (50 or more employees in a 4-week period at one establishment) triggers higher entitlements: 50-199 employees = 8 weeks; 200-499 = 12 weeks; 500 or more = 16 weeks. Pay in lieu equals regular wages for a regular work week multiplied by the required notice period; vacation pay accrues on the termination payment.
(2) Statutory severance pay (ESA ss.64-66) is a separate and additional entitlement: an employee qualifies only if (a) they have 5 or more years of service (continuous or non-continuous) AND (b) the employer's Ontario payroll is at least $2.5 million OR the employer has severed 50 or more employees within a 6-month period due to permanent closure. The calculation is: regular weekly wages multiplied by (completed years of employment + completed months of employment divided by 12 for any incomplete year). Maximum statutory severance is 26 weeks. Severance pay is payable in addition to termination pay; one cannot be used to offset the other.
Quebec: A single notice regime applies under Act respecting labour standards s.82. The employer must give written notice before terminating employment or laying off for 6 months or more: less than 1 year of uninterrupted service = 1 week; 1 to under 5 years = 2 weeks; 5 to under 10 years = 4 weeks; 10 years or more = 8 weeks. Employees with less than 3 months of uninterrupted service are not entitled to notice. If notice is not given or is insufficient, the employer must pay an indemnity equal to regular wages (excluding overtime) for the period or remaining period of notice owed (s.82.1). Quebec does not have a separate statutory severance pay concept equivalent to Ontario's ss.64-66; the notice indemnity is the sole statutory floor. Employees with 2 or more years of service have a separate unjust dismissal recourse under s.124 of the Act, which is a reinstatement/damages remedy rather than a severance payment.
British Columbia: BC ESA s.63 establishes compensation for length of service: after 3 consecutive months = 1 week; after 12 consecutive months = 2 weeks; after 3 consecutive years = 3 weeks, plus 1 additional week per additional year, to a maximum of 8 weeks (reached at 8 or more years). The amount is calculated on the average of the employee's regular weekly wages over the last 8 weeks. The employer may give written notice, pay compensation, or combine both.
BC ESA s.64 requires written notice to affected employees, any applicable union, and the minister when 50 or more employees at a single location are terminated within a 2-month period; group termination notice is in addition to the individual s.63 entitlement.
BC does not have a separate statutory severance pay concept; s.63 compensation is the sole statutory floor.
Alberta: Employment Standards Code Part 2, Division 8 (ss.54-60): termination notice scale by length of service: 90 days or less = no notice; 91 days to under 2 years = 1 week; 2 to under 4 years = 2 weeks; 4 to under 6 years = 4 weeks; 6 to under 8 years = 5 weeks; 8 to under 10 years = 6 weeks; 10 or more years = 8 weeks. The employer may give working notice, pay termination pay in lieu, or combine both to meet the required period.
Group termination of 50 or more employees at a single location in a 4-week period requires written notice to the minister.
Alberta has no separate statutory severance pay concept; severance beyond the ESC minimum is contractual or arises under common law reasonable notice principles.
When the ROE must be issued
| Trigger | Deadline |
|---|---|
| End of employment (paper ROE) | 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption occurs |
| End of employment (electronic ROE via ROE Web) | 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period or 5 calendar days after the last day of work, whichever is later |
| 7-consecutive-day interruption (paper ROE) | 5 calendar days after the 7th consecutive calendar day of interruption |
| 7-consecutive-day interruption (electronic ROE via ROE Web) | 5 calendar days after the 7th consecutive calendar day or the end of the pay period, whichever is later |
| Salary below 60% of normal weekly earnings | Same deadlines as above, applied from the first day the salary drops below threshold |
The deadlines above reflect the Service Canada ROE guide (government-tier source). They are verified as of 2026-04-12. Payroll administrators should confirm deadlines have not changed at canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/ei/ei-list/reports/roe-guide.html.
ROE submission methods
| Method | Typical user | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic (ROE Web, through Service Canada employer portal) | Most payroll providers and EOR vendors; mandatory for employers issuing 5 or more ROEs per year | 5 calendar days after end of pay period or last day of work |
| Electronically through payroll software (bulk XML transfer) | Large payroll providers; must be certified by Service Canada | Same as ROE Web |
| Paper (form ROE, mailed to Service Canada) | Small employers not using payroll software; rarely used by EOR vendors | 5 calendar days after end of pay period |
How an EOR handles the ROE obligation for a foreign employer
When a foreign company engages a Canadian EOR, the EOR is the registered employer for payroll purposes. The EOR holds the CRA Business Number and the CRA payroll program account. Because the ROE must be issued by the employer who paid the insurable earnings, the EOR bears the ROE issuance obligation for every employee it employs on the foreign company’s behalf.
In practice this means:
- The foreign company does not need to register with Service Canada or obtain a CRA payroll account to fulfill the ROE obligation.
- The EOR’s payroll system triggers the ROE issuance process when an interruption of earnings occurs for a covered employee.
- The EOR files the ROE electronically through ROE Web (or equivalent certified payroll software) within the prescribed deadline.
- A copy of the ROE is provided to the employee; the employee uses the ROE number to apply for EI benefits through My Service Canada Account.
Based on the vendor evidence available for this page, our inference is that all four verified Canada vendors (Safeguard Global, Globalization Partners, Plane, Boundless) handle ROE issuance as part of their standard EOR offering in Canada, because all four state they manage payroll and statutory compliance obligations as the employer of record. However, none of the four vendors’ captured Canada pages specifically name ROE issuance as a listed service item. Foreign employers should confirm ROE handling with their chosen vendor before the engagement begins, particularly for Quebec employees where QPIP leave triggers a separate ROE filing obligation with Revenu Quebec.
Quebec: QPIP and the ROE
Quebec employees accessing parental or maternity benefits draw from QPIP (Quebec Parental Insurance Plan), not from federal EI parental benefits. The ROE is still a federal form and is still required; Service Canada shares the ROE data with Revenu Quebec to administer QPIP claims. However, the employer must ensure that the insurable earnings recorded on the ROE include QPIP-insurable earnings, which differ from federal EI insurable earnings because the QPIP maximum insurable earnings threshold is higher (103,000 CAD in 2026 vs. 68,900 CAD for federal EI).
An EOR managing Quebec employees must therefore track two separate insurable earnings ceilings for the same employee: the federal EI ceiling for the ROE’s EI insurable earnings field, and the QPIP ceiling for the QPIP contribution field on the employee’s Quebec RL-1 slip. A correctly configured payroll system handles this automatically; the foreign employer relying on an EOR should confirm the EOR’s payroll system supports dual-ceiling Quebec payroll.
What we could not verify
- Whether any of the four verified Canada vendors specifically names ROE issuance as a listed service on their Canada page: not stated explicitly on any captured Canada page. The EOR’s legal obligation as registered employer implies ROE responsibility; explicit service confirmation needs manual vendor confirmation.
- Whether EOR vendors handle QPIP-specific ROE adjustments automatically or require the foreign employer to flag Quebec employees separately: not documented on any captured Canada vendor page. Needs manual confirmation for Quebec engagements.
For related reading, see:
Call to action: Hire in Canada via a vendor who handles ROE issuance.
Last verified: 2026-04-12. See the Canada research log and dossier for full source provenance.