Please note, as of April 3, 2019, collection and reporting of this data has been discontinued by the ministry. There will be no further updates to this dataset. Get aggregate data on total employer applications for Employment Standards Act Hours of Work (HOW) approvals. An Hours of Work (HOW) application is a request made by an employer with agreement from the employee (or employees) or union to permit employees to work excess hours over the established maximum (as per the Employment Standards Act (2000) section 17) or to average their overtime hours over two or more weeks for purposes of calculating overtime pay (as per the Employment Standards Act (2000) section 22.