What Is a Record of Employment?

Every year, over one million employers across Canada complete more than nine million record of employment (ROE) forms for their employees. That’s a lot of boxes filled in!

As an employer, understanding what a record of employment form is and how to complete one for employees is vital. It helps to ensure that employees who experience an interruption of earnings are accurately compensated with Employment Insurance (EI) benefits.

Failure to issue an ROE form correctly could result in missed or inaccurate benefits. False information could also result in penalties for employers.

Read on to learn more about the record of employment form and when you might need to issue one.

What is a record of employment (ROE)?

An ROE is an important document used by employees to apply for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. It helps Service Canada decide whether an employee is eligible for EI aid, how much they will be credited and for how long.

Employers should issue an ROE each time an employee experiences a loss of earnings. You can submit up to 1,200 ROEs at once online with record of employment on the Web (ROE Web). This can save you time having to manually fill out paper forms.

What is considered an interruption of earnings?

An interruption of earnings may occur when:

• an employee has or is expected to have seven back-to-back days without work, and no insurable earnings from their workplace (for example, when an employee quits their job, is laid off or their employment is terminated), or
• an employee’s salary dips to under 60% of their regular weekly pay because of sick leave, pregnancy or maternity leave, parental leave or family leave.

What does an ROE include?

A record of employment form typically includes the following information:

• details about the employee’s work history at your workplace, including insurable earnings and insurable hours,
• basic information about your company, such as your name, address and Canada Revenue Agency Payroll Account Number,
• basic information about the employee, including their name and address, and
• information about the employee’s insurable earnings such as their first day worked and the last day for which paid.

The form will then be processed by Service Canada to determine if an employee who experienced an interruption of earnings is eligible for EI benefits. As such, it’s important to ensure this information is accurate.

When does an employer have to issue an ROE?

You need to issue an ROE form every time an employee has an interruption of earnings. This still applies if the employee doesn’t wish to claim EI benefits.

There are also special situations in which you may have to issue an ROE.

• Service Canada requests one.
• Your business changes its pay period type.
• There is a change in business ownership.
• An employer declares bankruptcy.
• An employee moved to another Canada Revenue Agency Payroll Account Number.

For more information on special situations involving issuing ROE forms and the full terms and conditions, visit Canada.ca.

How long does an employer have to issue an ROE?

Its important employers complete an ROE request quickly. Different time scales apply to paper ROEs and electronic ROEs.

Paper ROEs

Should be issued within five days of:

• the first day of an interruption of earnings or
• the day you (the employer) become aware.

Electronic ROEs

How to complete a record of employment form

Blocks one to nine and 13 to 14 of the ROE form can be completed in any sequence. But it’s usually best to fill out the remaining sections in this order:

1. Fill out Blocks 10, 11 and 12.
2. Input any separation payments to the employee in Blocks 17A, 17B and 17C.
3. Work out the insurable hours for Block 15A.
4. Complete box 15C if needed (see below for further details). Next, enter the full insurable earnings into Block 15B. Include the insurable separation payments (in Block 17) in the total sum for the final pay period in Block 15C and in the total insurable earnings in Block 15B.

If you’re issuing an electronic ROE, you’ll need to fill out Block 15C. If you’re issuing a paper ROE, you’ll just need to do this if the employee didn’t receive any insurable earnings in one or more pay periods. Or if you want to provide Service Canada with this information.