Author Archives: Alan R. McEwen

About Alan R. McEwen

HRIS/Payroll consultant and freelance writer

Short window to respond to BC Employment Standards review!

British Columbia has a history of sometimes turbulent labour relations. However, we’re a long ways away from the use of British army troops to supress a coal miner’s strike on Vancouver Island just before WW1 or the 1918 shooting of … Continue reading

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Have you ever heard the phrase “Pay me now or pay me later”?

Implementing and maintaining payroll systems is a bit like that. Let me explain. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of work with two particular payroll systems, one I’ll describe as having a more complex setup, the other a less complex … Continue reading

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How do statutory holidays affect overtime in BC?

Here’s a test of your payroll knowledge: do you know how many overtime hours Katlyn worked and can you explain why? Katlyn’s normal hours of work are Monday to Friday, 8 paid hours per day. For the week, February 12 … Continue reading

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Big picture sometimes works best when reading employment standards

Anyone responsible for ensuring compliance with employment standards, or with source deduction requirements, should have at least some familiarity with the legislation that applies. I’d even go further and say that anyone with these responsibilities should make a conscious, ongoing … Continue reading

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Yesterday’s budget changes rules for electronic T4s!

Yesterday’s federal budget changed the rules under which employers may provide electronic, instead of paper copies of T4 slips to employees. Currently the Income Tax Regulations say electronic access can be provided to year-end slips only if employees have expressly … Continue reading

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