Do the labour standards apply if i am a manager?
Short answer
In Quebec, senior managerial personnel are excluded from most labour standards, but not from all of them. Certain provisions continue to apply, in particular absences for family or parental reasons, maternity, paternity and parental leave, protection against psychological harassment, and protection against forced retirement.
In detail
Two notions have to be kept apart. An ordinary “manager” remains an employee within the meaning of the Act: they are excluded in particular from the overtime premium and from certain provisions on hours of work, but they keep the rest, including the remedy under section 124 for dismissal without good and sufficient cause.
“Senior managerial personnel” is a narrower category, covering people who perform management duties at the highest level of the business. It is that category that is largely excluded from the Act. The title written on a contract is not decisive: what counts is the duties actually performed, the decision-making autonomy and the place in the hierarchy.
A person excluded from the labour standards is not without recourse: the Civil Code of Québec, the Charter of human rights and freedoms and, where applicable, their contract continue to apply.
What to document
Your official title, but above all your actual description of duties, your organization chart, your decision-making power (budgets, hiring, dismissals), who you report to, and the signed contract. The distinction turns on the duties actually performed: the documents that describe them are worth more than the title.
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
- Act respecting labour standards (CQLR, c. N-1.1) — Légis Québec
- Au bas de l'échelle — Inclusions and exclusions
- CNESST — Manual for the application of the Act respecting labour standards (MALNT)
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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.