# Can I get unpaid overtime and holiday pay after my employer was convicted? - Jurisdiction: Canada - Practice area: Labor Standards - Published: 2026-10-22 - Last updated: 2026-10-22 - Canonical: https://lawasked.com/ca/labor-standards/can-i-get-unpaid-overtime-holiday-pay-after ## Question I work in Ontario, and my employer has been convicted of an offence involving unpaid wages for a former employee. From January 2023 to August 2024, I worked 50 hours in most weeks, but my paycheques showed only 40 hours, with no overtime or holiday pay. I calculated that I am owed about $12,000 in overtime pay and $1,500 in vacation and holiday pay. The employer told me the missing amounts would be paid after a court case, but I have not received anything. I have my schedules, text messages from the manager confirming the hours, and copies of six paycheques, although the company did not keep proper records. I already complained to the Ministry of Labour and filed a claim with the employment standards office. The court has now convicted the company, and the court clerk told me that a wage order may be available. I am unsure whether the court can make the company pay all the unpaid amounts in one payment, and whether the missing records mean I can rely on being paid for the maximum permitted hours each week. I also want to know whether I can ask the court to put me back in my old position. ## Summary Section 258 requires a convicting court to order payment of unpaid overtime, vacation, and holiday pay that formed the basis of a Canada Labour Code Part III offence, but only if the Code applies to your employer, which is a threshold question for an Ontario worker. If the court finds inaccurate records, the Code presumes maximum weekly hours and full weekly wages, but the provided sections do not define that maximum, so the amount you recover is not settled. ## Analysis ### Threshold question: does the Canada Labour Code apply? The provided sections are from the Canada Labour Code, which governs federal works, undertakings, and businesses. You say you work in Ontario, but the question does not say whether your employer is federally regulated, such as a bank, interprovincial carrier, or telecommunications company. Most Ontario workplaces are governed by provincial employment standards legislation instead. If your employer is not federally regulated, section 258 does not apply, and the conviction and wage-order analysis below would have to be redone under Ontario law. The provided sections do not say how the federal and provincial regimes divide coverage, so this point must be confirmed before relying on them. ### Court-ordered payment under section 258 If the Code applies, section 258(1) provides that the convicting court “shall, in addition to any other punishment, order the employer to pay to the employee any overtime pay, vacation pay, holiday pay or other wages or amounts to which the employee is entitled under this Part the non-payment or insufficient payment of which constituted the offence for which the employer was convicted” [cite:ca-labour-code-sec258]. In plain terms, the order is tied to the amounts that made up the offence. It is not stated as a general right to recover every unpaid amount for the whole period. The provided text does not say whether the order must be paid in a single lump sum, in instalments, or within a set deadline, and it does not describe enforcement steps. The statute uses mandatory “shall” language for the order itself, but the provided sections do not address how the employer’s compliance is enforced. Whether your full claim of about $12,000 in overtime and $1,500 in vacation and holiday pay falls within the conviction depends on the charge, the conviction, and the court’s findings [cite:ca-labour-code-sec258]. If the conviction covers only some employees, some periods, or some types of pay, the remaining amounts may need to be pursued through another process. The provided sections do not say whether a separate civil or statutory claim is available, nor do they state any limitation period for the court’s order. Section 251.1 limits payment orders issued by the Labour Program to amounts for the 24 months before a complaint or inspection, subject to listed exceptions [cite:ca-labour-code-sec251p1]. That provision governs a different mechanism, but it shows that time limits can affect which periods are recoverable. The provided sections do not establish whether the same limit applies to a section 258 order. ### Effect of inaccurate records Section 258(3) provides that if the convicting court “finds that the employer has not kept accurate records as required by this Part or the regulations,” then “the employee affected shall be conclusively presumed to have been employed for the maximum number of hours a week allowed under this Part and to be entitled to the full weekly wage therefor” [cite:ca-labour-code-sec258]. This applies only if the court makes that finding. Your schedules, manager text messages, and six paycheques are evidence the court may consider in deciding whether records were inaccurate and what hours were worked. The presumption then operates on the maximum weekly hours allowed under the Code. The provided sections do not state that maximum. The 50 hours you worked are not automatically the presumed maximum, and the question does not establish the applicable limit. Overtime, as described in section 174, would be the amount above the applicable limit, so the presumption's effect on your overtime claim depends on that limit [cite:ca-labour-code-sec174]. The provided sections do not settle whether the presumption extends to vacation pay and holiday pay calculations, so that point is unsettled on this record. ### Overtime pay Section 174(1)(a) provides that an employee is entitled to “be paid for the overtime at a rate of wages not less than one and one-half times their regular rate of wages” [cite:ca-labour-code-sec174]. Section 174(1)(b) allows time off instead, but only where “at their request, they and the employer enter into an agreement in writing” for time off on agreed dates, and the time off is taken within the period set in section 174(2)(b) [cite:ca-labour-code-sec174]. Nothing in the question indicates that you agreed in writing to take time off, so the paid-overtime option is the relevant one on the facts given. If any written time-off agreement exists, it would need to be reviewed. ### Holiday pay and vacation pay Section 196(1) provides for holiday pay of “at least one twentieth of the wages, excluding overtime pay, that the employee earned with the employer in the four-week period immediately preceding the week in which the general holiday occurs” [cite:ca-labour-code-sec196]. Because the calculation excludes overtime, the holiday pay figure should be computed separately from any overtime amount. If you worked on a general holiday for which you were entitled to holiday pay, section 197(1) requires that you be paid “wages at a rate equal to at least one and one-half times their regular rate of wages for the time that they work on that day” in addition to holiday pay [cite:ca-labour-code-sec197]. The provided sections do not address vacation pay, so the amount you calculated for vacation pay must be checked against the applicable provincial rules. ### Reinstatement Section 258(2) applies only where the employer was convicted of an offence “in respect of the discharge of an employee” [cite:ca-labour-code-sec258]. If that condition is met, the court “may, in addition to any other punishment,” order compensation “not exceeding such sum as in the opinion of the court is equivalent to the wages that would have accrued to the employee up to the date of conviction but for such discharge,” and may order reinstatement “at such date as in the opinion of the court is just and proper in the circumstances and in the position that the employee would have held but for such discharge” [cite:ca-labour-code-sec258]. These orders are discretionary. Your question does not state that you were discharged, and a conviction only for unpaid wages does not fall within subsection 258(2) on the provided text. If you were dismissed, and the conviction concerned that dismissal, you should ask the court expressly for these remedies. ### Other legal layers Provincial or territorial employment standards legislation, any applicable collective agreement, and your employment contract may add or change overtime, vacation, holiday, record-keeping, limitation, and reinstatement rules. The provided sections do not address these layers, and they may apply instead of or in addition to the Code. ## Statutory citations - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 258 - Order to pay arrears of wages [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-258) > the convicting court shall, in addition to any other punishment, order the employer to pay to the employee any overtime pay, vacation pay, holiday pay or other wages or amounts to which the employee is entitled under this Part the non-payment or insufficient payment of which constituted the offence for which the employer was convicted - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 258 - Order to pay arrears of wages [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-258) > finds that the employer has not kept accurate records as required by this Part or the regulations, the employee affected shall be conclusively presumed to have been employed for the maximum number of hours a week allowed under this Part and to be entitled to the full weekly wage therefor - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 258 - Order to pay arrears of wages [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-258) > in respect of the discharge of an employee; the convicting court may, in addition to any other punishment, order the employer (a) to pay compensation for loss of employment to the employee not exceeding such sum as in the opinion of the court is equivalent to the wages that would have accrued to the employee up to the date of conviction but for such discharge; and (b) to reinstate the employee in his employ at such date as in the opinion of the court is just and proper in the circumstances and in the position that the employee would have held but for such discharge - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 174 - Overtime pay or time off [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-174) > be paid for the overtime at a rate of wages not less than one and one-half times their regular rate of wages - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 196 - Holiday pay [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-196) > holiday pay equal to at least one twentieth of the wages, excluding overtime pay, that the employee earned with the employer in the four-week period immediately preceding the week in which the general holiday occurs - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 197 - Additional pay for holiday work [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-197) > wages at a rate equal to at least one and one-half times their regular rate of wages for the time that they work on that day - Canada Labour Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. L-2, s. 251.1 - Payment order [in force] (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/L-2/index.html#s-251.1) > A payment order must not relate to wages or other amounts to which the employee is entitled for the period preceding --- General information only, not legal advice. See https://lawasked.com/disclaimer