Can my employer stagger my hours over several weeks to avoid overtime?
Short answer
In Quebec, an employer may stagger working hours on a basis other than the week by written agreement with the employee, provided the staggering covers no more than 4 weeks and no week exceeds the applicable standard work week by more than 10 hours. Either party may cancel the agreement on 2 weeks' notice (s. 53 of the Act respecting labour standards).
In detail
Since the amendments that came into force in 2018, authorization from the CNESST (Quebec's labour standards, health and safety board) is no longer needed where those conditions are met. Outside that framework — a reference period longer than 4 weeks, or an excess of more than 10 hours — the employer must obtain the CNESST's authorization.
Staggering does not make overtime disappear: it changes the reference period used to calculate it. Without a valid written agreement and without an authorization, the calculation stays weekly, at 40 hours.
A staggering agreement is in writing. A tolerated practice, a verbal instruction or a habit of the establishment does not replace the writing the Act requires.
What to document
The written staggering agreement if there is one, its date and its duration, the notice of cancellation if there was one, your actual hours week by week, and the matching pay stubs. Without an agreement document, your weekly record of hours is the central piece.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
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Official sources
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.