[EricSu]

Are you saying the employee has the right to refuse to work overtime or the employer has the right to refuse to pay for overtime?

As people have said, if the employer refuses to pay an hourly worker overtime when they've worked the overtime hours then there are labor law issues (which means that the employee must be paid overtime). But I do know employers can ask/assert that an hourly employee is not to exceed a certain amount of hours per week. If an employer refuses to pay a salaried employee overtime then that's where this article comes in and what people are discussing in the other comments.

If an employee refuses to work overtime then that mostly deals with workplace culture, pleasing your boss/your personal decision/getting your work done. There's a big difference between why or how an hourly employee can or would refuse to work overtime vs a salaried employee as explained by the way they're paid. An hourly employee mostly deals with not getting paid more money whereas a salaried employee most likely worries about a bad relationship with the boss/company.

I suppose everyone has the right to refuse overtime (not sure if there are legal foundations for this) but since the US has a work-as-much-as-possible kind of mindset it's difficult to simply refuse overtime.

[rdsnsca]

The worker can refuse to work overtime.

[papercrane]

That's a quick way to get fired. As of 2012, there was no right to refuse overtime in Nova Scotia and no cap on the amount of overtime you can work. I'm not aware of any amendments to the labour standards since then

Source: Buott, Kyle, Larry Haiven, and Judy Haiven. "Labour Standards Reform in Nova Scotia." (2012). pp 12-13.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads...

[rdsnsca]

Did it in 1214 and wasn't fired, would run a ver public labour board lawsuit if i was too.

Companies hate the publicity.

[papercrane]

That's different from having the right to refuse overtime though.