Record of employment in Canada: A filing guide for employers

Every time an employee’s pay stops because of a layoff, a resignation, a leave, or a dismissal, Canadian employers have a legal obligation to complete a record of employment. The ROE is the single document used to decide whether a former employee qualifies for Employment Insurance (EI), how much they’ll receive, and for how long. It sounds simple, but any mistake in the timing or the details can hold up someone’s benefits at the worst possible moment.

Employers also don’t have much room to manoeuvre on timing: in most cases, an ROE has to be issued within five calendar days of the interruption of earnings—a deadline that includes weekends and statutory holidays and applies the same way whether your business is based in Toronto, Calgary, or anywhere else in the country.

A record of employment is the form—in paper or electronic format—that employers complete whenever an employee receiving insurable earnings stops working and experiences an interruption of earnings. It’s the document Service Canada relies on most heavily to administer the EI program: it confirms how long someone worked, what they earned, and why the employment ended. You have to complete an ROE even if you know the employee doesn’t intend to apply for EI.

On the form, you report:

• Administrative details (employer name and payroll account number, employee name and Social Insurance Number)
• The period of employment
• Total insurable hours and earnings
• A reason code explaining why the interruption occurred

Moreover, Service Canada shares this information with Quebec’s Parental Insurance Plan for residents of that province, so file accuracy matters beyond EI for workers relying on that benefit.

An ROE comes in one of two formats, and both capture the same information:

• Electronic ROE: Submitted through Service Canada’s ROE Web portal (either by manual entry or by uploading data from compatible payroll software), or through Secure Automated Transfer (SAT) via a payroll provider.
• Paper ROE: A one-page form in triplicate. Part 1 goes to the employee, Part 2 is mailed to Service Canada’s processing centre, and Part 3 stays in your records.
  

Whichever format you use, the record of employment form works through the same core blocks with the information described earlier. If you file electronically, you no longer have to print a paper copy for the employee: they can view and print it themselves through their My Service Canada Account.

Regardless of the format you use, employers are responsible for retaining the underlying payroll records that support every ROE filed—for six years, stored securely, whether in paper or electronic form. That record-keeping obligation is separate from, and in addition to, the ROE itself, and it’s the first thing Service Canada will ask for if a filed ROE is ever questioned or audited.

The trigger for issuing an ROE is what Service Canada calls an interruption of earnings. This happens in two main situations:

• The 7-day rule: The employee has had, or is expected to have, seven or more consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings from you. This covers most layoffs, resignations, and terminations.
• The 60% rule: The employee’s earnings drop below 60% of their regular weekly earnings because of illness, injury, pregnancy, parental leave, or compassionate care leave.
  

This means an ROE is required for the full range of separations an HR team handles: layoffs, resignations, dismissals, retirements, unpaid leaves of absence, and the end of a contract or a season.

The 60% rule tends to be the less familiar of the two triggers, so it’s worth walking through: if an employee normally earns $1,000 a week but is reduced to $400 a week (40% of their usual pay) because of illness, the Sunday of that first reduced-earnings week becomes the official first day of the interruption, even though the employee is technically still on the payroll.

There are a handful of exceptions where the 7-day rule doesn’t apply, such as a business’s regular annual vacation shutdown when employees remain employed and receive trust-fund vacation pay, or non-standard schedules like a firefighter’s rotating shifts.

You also don’t have to issue an ROE for every interruption involving a part-time, on-call, or casual worker, unless the employee asks for one, they’ve dropped off your active employment list, Service Canada requests it, or they’ve gone 30 days without work or earnings.

Separately from all of this, you must issue an ROE any time Service Canada requests one, or when your payroll account number or pay period type changes.

In most cases, an employer has five calendar days to issue an ROE. This is a federal requirement under the Employment Insurance program, so the deadline is identical whether you’re filing a record of employment in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, or anywhere else in Canada—there’s no separate provincial version of the form or the timeline.

Exactly when that five-day clock starts, however, depends on how you file:

• Paper ROE: Due within five calendar days of the first day of the interruption of earnings, or the day you become aware of it.
• Electronic ROE (weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly pay periods): Due within five calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption occurs.
• Electronic ROE (monthly or 13 pay periods a year): Due by whichever comes first—five calendar days after the end of the relevant pay period, or 15 calendar days after the first day of the interruption.
  

For example, if an employee’s last day worked falls on March 1 and your biweekly pay period runs to March 11, the electronic ROE is due no later than March 16—five days after that pay period closes. Missing the deadline isn’t a minor slip: under section 137 of the Employment Insurance Act, an employer who fails to provide an accurate ROE on time can face a fine of up to $2,000, prosecution, or both.

For most employers, ROE Web is the better choice. Service Canada strongly encourages electronic filing, and for most employers it’s the more efficient route. ROE Web lets you create, submit, print, and amend ROEs online, and it supports bulk submission of up to 1,200 records of employment at once—useful if you’re managing a larger workforce reduction. Filing a record of employment online through ROE Web or SAT also means you’re not obligated to hand employees a paper copy, since the data goes directly into Service Canada’s system and employees can retrieve it themselves.

Paper ROEs still have a place for smaller employers or occasional use. Still, they come with more manual handling: three physical copies to distribute, a specific mailing address for Part 2, and a 6-year retention requirement for your own records regardless of which format you choose.

The ROE codes are a standardized set of letters—A through Z—entered in Block 16 to explain why the ROE is being issued. If more than one reason could apply, use whichever one applies first. This block matters more than any other on the form: it’s what determines how Service Canada processes the former employee’s EI claim, and misrepresenting it—knowingly entering a false or misleading reason—is a serious offence that can lead to fines or prosecution.

Below are all ROE codes to be entered in Block 16:

Code	Reason	When to use it
A	Shortage of work (layoff)	The most common code. Use for layoffs, end of contract or season, restructuring, or a temporary or permanent shutdown.
B	Strike or lockout	The employee is on strike or has been locked out.
D	Illness or injury	The employee is leaving temporarily due to illness or injury.
E	Quit	The employee initiated the separation—a new job, relocation, return to school, or voluntary retirement.
F	Maternity	For an employee who is pregnant or has recently given birth and is taking maternity leave.
G	Retirement	Mandatory retirement or an approved Work Force Reduction program.
H	Work-sharing	The employee is participating in Service Canada’s Work-Sharing Program.
J	Apprentice training	Temporary leave for a government-approved apprenticeship program.
M	Dismissal or suspension	The employer initiated the separation for any reason other than layoff or mandatory retirement, including probationary termination.
N	Leave of absence	Any period of unpaid leave that isn’t illness, maternity, parental, or compassionate care leave.
P	Parental	Leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child.
Z	Compassionate care/family caregiver	Leave to care for a critically ill or injured family member.
K	Other	Reserved for exceptional circumstances not covered above—always explain in Block 18.

A note on Code C: You may still see Code C (“Return to school”) referenced in older materials, but Service Canada is phasing it out. If an employee is leaving to return to school, use Code E (Quit) and note “Return to school” in Block 18 or the ROE Web dropdown. If they’re leaving for a government-approved apprenticeship program, use Code J instead.

Here’s a simplified look at how the key fields come together for a straightforward layoff, filed electronically:

Block	Field	Sample entry
10	First day worked	14/06/2021
11	Last day for which paid	18/07/2026
12	Final pay period ending date	20/07/2026
15A	Total insurable hours	1,976
15B	Total insurable earnings	$54,320.00
16	Reason for issuing this ROE	A — Shortage of work
17A	Vacation pay	$2,088.00
18	Comments	(left blank—no exceptional circumstances)

Note that Block 12—the final pay period ending date—can never fall earlier than Block 11, and the two dates only match when an employee’s last day paid happens to land on the last day of the pay period. Getting this pair of dates right is what allows Service Canada to correctly calculate the pay periods you report in Block 15.

If you make a mistake, you have to issue an amended ROE, since you can’t cancel an ROE once it’s been issued, and you can’t correct a paper ROE after you’ve distributed the copies. A few rules apply:

• Reference the original: Enter the serial number of the ROE you’re correcting in Block 2, whether you’re amending on paper or electronically.
• Complete the whole form: Fill in every block on the amended ROE, not just the ones that changed. This is one of the most common filing errors employers make.
• Amending electronically: In ROE Web, search for the original ROE, make your corrections, and submit; a new serial number is assigned automatically. If you’re amending a paper ROE electronically, note “Amending a paper ROE” in Block 18 along with the original serial number.
• Amending by paper: Use a blank paper ROE form, enter the original serial number in Block 2, and re-enter every field correctly.
  

If a paper ROE is still uncompleted or undistributed and you catch an error, never use white-out: you can strike out the incorrect entry, write in the correction, and initial it. Once copies are in circulation, though, an amended ROE is the only way to fix it.

Filing an accurate, on-time ROE is a compliance task, but it’s rarely the only thing happening the day someone leaves. A well-run separation also depends on a clear termination policy that spells out who owns each step, and a documented offboarding process that keeps payroll, IT, and people managers moving in sync so nothing—including the ROE deadline—slips through the cracks.

That same offboarding workflow is also where outplacement support tends to make the biggest difference. While your payroll team is focused on getting the ROE filed correctly and on time, a departing employee is dealing with the practical and emotional side of the transition. The two experiences shape how that person, and the colleagues watching, remember the departure.

Building outplacement services into the standard offboarding checklist, alongside the ROE and the rest of the compliance steps, is one of the more straightforward ways to make sure the administrative side of a separation and the human side of it are handled with the same level of care. If you’re choosing outplacement providers for an upcoming workforce transition, speak with one of our experts to learn how Careerminds can support your team.