Centennial College, School of Business

Payroll, HRMT 318, Winter 2020

Take Home Final Exam

Question 1
In Toronto, you are working in a fast food restaurant Manager, for this summer you have
recruited 5 people for the sales force. Educate the new hires about the Labour and
Employment standard have been obtain and review an employer’s policy manual and a
collective bargaining agreement, and note areas where the employer provides
compensation or benefits that exceed those required by employment standards.

The company is responsible to educate the new hire employee in the orientation day
about the company’s pay procedures, labour, and employment standard that the company
follows. In Canada, every legitimate organization has to comply with the federal
employment standard as well as the provincial employment act. However, this standard
also varies from province to province. For example – Ontario minimum wage rate is $14 an
hour and Manitoba’s minimum wage is $11.35 an hour. However, as a Toronto manager, I
will educate employees according to the Ontario employment act with federal employment
standards.

Employer policy: Educating new hire, the company has to provide details about wage,
salary compensation, overtime pay, minimum hours of work, allowances, benefits, holiday
pay, vacation pay, termination pay, deductions including statutory and non-statutory,
payroll period, statements of earning availability, leave of absence standard that the
company follow.

Collective bargaining: The collective bargaining refers to identify the minimum

requirements that employers must follow. Employer always chose to take the best term and
conditions that benefited the employee. This helps to motivate the employee at the workplace. A
payroll administration follows the third-party collective bargaining with the union if it’s more
benefited to the employee. Generally, in the company manual book has all the necessary
information for further references.

Question 2
You are working as a day shift supervisor in one of the Starbucks restaurants located in
Union station. At about 2:00pm, there was no customer, an unknown person with gun

Page 1|6
entered the branch and stolen all the cash on the day. Your employees are shocked and
terrified with that incident that the management will ask them to compensate the loss. As a
supervisor, how do you educate and create awareness that the employer cannot deduct
from their salary.

According to the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development deductions from
wages are not allowed for robbery, stolen, cash shortage, and any other illegal deduction. For
example – robbery in a restaurant while working an employee is not allowed to take charges by
employer. In this case, as a supervisor at Starbucks restaurant faces robbery while working his
shift is not considerate to cut his wages. Furthermore, in any circumstance, if the employer asks
to compensate for the loss from the employee then there will be serious consequences toward the
employer. Sometimes even shut down the business because of illegal charges. However, the
employer cannot terminate an employee because of theft, robbery or cash shortage.

The Ministry of labour also refers that the employer cannot reduce the hours of work as
well as suspend or threaten to employee in any case. The supervisor can also educate the
employer by referencing the statements for Canada labour code section 254.1 paragraph (2)(c),
“no employer shall, pursuant to that paragraph, make a deduction in respect of damage to
property, or loss of money or property, if any person other than the employee had access to the
property or money in question.” The employees in Ontario are protected by the employment
standard act (ESA), where one of the conditions for the employer is the employee safety and
security during work time.

Question 3
You are working as a HR Manager in a Call Centre, and the company takes decision to
downsize the employees. Instead of Manpower they want to introduce AI (Robots),
therefore the company laid off 50 percentage of the employees in the organization.
Hundreds of employees got laid off due to the company decision. As a HR Manager,
(a) Explain the termination and reporting process taken place in your organization.
(b) Also, develop a comprehensive checklist for this decision to laid off the employees.

(a) It is essential to identify the layoff is temporary or permanent termination. If the layoff is
temporary then the pay in lieu, severance or period of notice is not required. However, if there is
a chance of being permanently laid off then the HR or payroll administrator needs to follow all
of the earning are adjusted. Such as –

Page 2|6
  Any outstanding wages or salary required to compensate.
 Any outstanding vacations pay that not taken by the employee.
 Severance pay as per labour or employment standards. 
 Pay in lieu of notice or employment standard of the appropriate jurisdiction.
 Any additional pay as per company policy and standards. 
According to the case study HR manager in a call center requires to determine what kind of
layoff would have given to employees. Considering the fact of layoff is for recall after thirteen
weeks or not the HR manager requires to provide Record of employment (ROE) to their
employee along with pay adjusted act discussed above. The ROE is essential for employee for
taking the employment insurance benefits. However, ROE is not requiring for those employees
who are not working as a schedule basis or contractual.

(b) There are few procedures to follow while terminating employees, which also refers to a
formal checklist. The employee must receive notice of layoff in writing. The HR or payroll
administrator has to follow the following checklist while terminating the employees;
 Final day of work and any payments due to termination.
 ROE preparation and submission to Service Canada.
 Amounts to be withheld and company property to be returned.
 Notify the vendor, clients, insurance company and other working employees.
 Canceling all the authority and access password
 Any other items required by company policy.

Question 4
You are working as a Payroll Manager in a Law Firm, Toronto, and you have recruited 2
Payroll Administrators (PAs). You need to impart training to both PAs. (a) Could you
explain and train them, how payroll process works either manually or with the help of a
software.
(b) In addition to that explain the remitter types and payment frequencies for the Canada
Revenue Agency, WSIB and Health taxes.

(a) Payroll administrator has a big responsibility in the organization whereas all pay, remittances,
and withholding goes through payroll administrator. New recruits required to be trained under
proper payroll administration within the organization. The organization in Canada uses payroll

Page 3|6
software in their organization but there are still some company also do it manually. However,
manual operation is considered to be more accurate than software. 
If the organization uses payroll software then it is important to know what kind of software they
used in the organization. Also, software has to be upgraded to give better results. There are some
steps to follow in the software tab to train a new hire such as; 
 Profile - employee profile creates, data entry, payroll register, SIN number,
 Wages or salary input - hourly pay, overtime, contractual, leave pay, termination pay or
any other related pay input. 
 Tax Information - identify and input both federal and provincial TD1 forms, 
 Vacations/Miscellanies - Vacation pay according to length 4%, 6% or 8% and
miscellanies pay input. 
 Allowances/Benefits – any allowances or benefits providing by the company. 
 Deductions - deduction calculation for both statutory and non-statutory, court order,
charity contribution by employee, unions dues, and any other deduction legally required. 
 Banks – employee bank information whereas the net pay will be depositing.  

With the help of software, new hires would be able to calculate the net pay for each employee.
However, as discussed manual process is more accurate but using software a payroll
administrator has to input the data accurately.

(b) The remitter types and payment frequencies for the Canada Revenue Agency determined by
the type of defined remittances by CRA. The payroll administrator also has to provide T4
documents for the year-end by February 28. The type of remittances is determined by Average
Monthly Withholding Amount (AMWA). These remittances are categorized by the following:
 Regular: if the AMWA was less than 25,000, or new company and 15th day of the
month following the month during which employees are paid.
 Quarterly: is the AMWA was less than 3,000 and 15th day of the month following the
calendar year quarterly during which employees paid.
 Accelerated remitter threshold 1: AMWA from 25000 to 99,999 and 25th of the month
for payments to employees biweekly 

Page 4|6
  Accelerated remitter threshold 2: AMWA from 100,000 or more and payment made
weekly basis. 
WSIB: every province has its own premium payment sets for remittances. To educate the In
Ontario if the annual earning goes over 300000 then payment has to make monthly basis by end
of the month, earning between 20000 to 299999 then payment has to make quarterly by end of
the following month and earning less than 20000 then annually and in the month of April 30. 

Employer Health Taxes: In Ontario, an annual payment is required if the annual payroll is less
than 600000 and payment has to made by March 15. However, any payroll goes over 600000 a
year then the payment has to make monthly following the 15th of each month. All of this
necessary information is required to educate the new hire to become an effective payroll
administrator.

Question 5
Consider how payroll processing might be affected by COVID 19. (a) Identify five
potential situations and define contingency action plans that could be put in place to ensure
that employees are paid on time. (b) What preparations can help ensure that /remittances
are made when required?

Contingency plan in payroll refers to a plan that goes beyond the regular payroll administrative
tasks. Current situation of COVID 19 many organisations has been temporarily closed. The
government has taken an action to make sure all the working professional who lost their jobs due
to COVID 19 will subsidies their wages, which comes under contingency plan. Here are some
contingency action plan discussed below;
Employment Insurance (EI): some company has closed due to pandemic so the payroll
administrator required to provide ROE to ensure the employee get the employment benefit on
time. However, payroll administrator has to mention on the letter reason code “D” for illness or
injury (there is no specific ROE code for quarantine).
Emergency Care Benefit: Employee who taking care of other members of the family and can’t
work due to pandemic can get these benefits. Payroll administrator can consult with the
employee how to apply for these benefits and get paid on time.

Page 5|6
Company Emergency care: there are some company provide emergency benefits for their
employee. In this situation payroll administrator can file the papers work and make the payment
on time.
Emergency Support Benefits: Emergency support benefit also provided by government. To
qualify for this, support a payroll administrator has to send the ROE to Service Canada. This will
ensure that the employee will receive the payment on time. Compensation and benefit during
COVID-19: Company may provide compensation and benefits to the employee. In this regard
payroll administrator need to recognize eligible employee benefits schemes. Based on that
identical scheme payroll administrator has to comply the payment procedure. These is to confirm
that all employees receive payment on time. However, this process can follow as long as
COVID-19 pandemic remain.

Preparation for remittance that is required in COVID-19:

 Create remittance schedules and processes.
 Document direct deposits (Cheque) process.
 Develop remote payroll processing capabilities (Include offsite arrangements).
 Create ‘Communication plan’ during this COVID-19 pandemic.
 Create list of internal key contacts, for example; Human Resources IT, Finance,
leadership in key rolls.
 Export and save all the payroll information and outputs for a selected pay cycle from the
old payroll system.

Page 6|6