Record of Employment (ROE): what it is and when to issue

What an ROE is for

A Record of Employment is the form Service Canada uses to decide whether a person qualifies for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, how much they get and for how long. It records how long the person worked for you, their insurable hours and earnings, and why their earnings stopped. You must issue one whether or not the employee says they will claim EI.

When you must issue one

You issue an ROE when an employee has an interruption of earnings. That happens when:

• The employee has, or will have, 7 consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings from you: a layoff, a quit, a dismissal or the end of a contract.
• For sick leave, maternity, parental or caregiver leave, their pay drops below 60% of their regular weekly earnings. The interruption starts on the Sunday of that week.
• Service Canada asks you for one.

Part-time and casual workers who are still on your list are a special case. Issue an ROE if they ask for one after an interruption, if you take them off your active list, or if they have had no work and no insurable earnings for 30 days. Commission-only workers usually have an interruption only when the contract ends or they go on one of the leaves above.

The deadline

Example: an employee on a biweekly payroll quits on Wednesday, March 10, 2027, in a pay period that ends Saturday, March 13. An electronic ROE is due by Thursday, March 18. Late ROEs delay the employee's benefits, and Service Canada will contact you if one is missing. Keep payroll records for 6 years after the year they relate to.

Hours, earnings and the reason code

• Block 10, first day worked; block 11, last day for which paid.
• Block 15A, total insurable hours: hours paid over the most recent pay periods, up to 53 weekly, 27 biweekly, 25 semi-monthly or 13 monthly periods. Include paid leave and vacation hours; overtime counts as the hours actually worked.
• Block 15B, total insurable earnings: over the last 27 weekly, 14 biweekly, 13 semi-monthly or 7 monthly periods, including statutory holiday pay. Report all insurable earnings, not just up to the EI maximum ($68,900 for 2026).
• Block 15C, earnings by pay period: starting with the final period as period 1 and working back, with "0.00" for periods with no earnings. Electronic ROEs always include it.
• Block 17: vacation pay, severance and other money paid on separation.

Block 16 is the reason for issuing. Choose it carefully: it affects the employee's claim, and knowingly giving a false reason can lead to fines.

For what each code means, the E and K sub-codes and the most common coding mistakes, see ROE reason codes A to Z.

Code C (return to school) is being phased out; Service Canada now uses E or J for those cases.

How to file: ROE Web

1. Register for ROE Web with Service Canada before you need it. Registration and access approval take time, so do it when you hire your first employee.
2. Gather the figures: first day worked, last day paid, insurable hours from your time records, and insurable earnings by pay period from payroll.
3. Enter or upload the ROE in ROE Web. Payroll systems can also send ROEs through Secure Automated Transfer.
4. The employee sees it online in My Service Canada Account; with an electronic ROE you don't have to give them a paper copy.
5. Amend in ROE Web if something changes later, such as a final vacation payout.

Paper ROEs still exist, ordered from Service Canada, but electronic filing is faster for you and the employee. When an employee leaves, their T4 for the year still comes in February: see T4 and T4A slips for 2026.