Holiday Policy

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2024 Paid Holidays

2023 Paid Holidays

2022 Paid Holidays

2021 Paid Holidays

2020 Paid Holidays

2019 Paid Holidays

2018 Paid Holidays

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Policy Statement

Employees are entitled to designated holidays as indicated by the Employer or as noted within the relevant collective agreements.

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Application

This policy applies to all employees of Government departments.

Bargaining unit employees should also consult their respective collective agreements and the provisions of the collective agreement shall prevail.

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Definitions

Day of Rest a day when an employee is not ordinarily required to work, other than a designated holiday or day when the employee is on leave
Designated Holidays paid holidays scheduled by the Employer or as prescribed by collective agreement
Cultural or Religious Significance: a day in which a religious observation is held or a day that celebrates the culture of a particular nation, people, or other social group

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Responsibilities

Department
It is the responsibility of individual departments to inform employees of the schedule of designated holidays.

The Department will endeavor to accommodate requests received prior to November 15 in the calendar year, before the new designations take effect, to designate replacement statutory holiday(s) that are of cultural or religious significance to the employee in place of any or all of the statutory holidays outlined, and such requests shall not be unreasonably denied.  Requests received after November 15 in the calendar year before the new designations take effect, subject to operational requirements and availability of replacement staff, will not be unreasonable denied.

Employee

It is the responsibility of the employee to inform the Employer, in writing, prior to November 15 in the calendar year before the new designations take effect of any statutory holiday(s) the employee is requesting to replace and which day(s) of cultural or religious significance, including the dates on which they occur, that they are designating in the stead of the replaced statutory holiday(s).

Where the specific date(s) of cultural or religious significance are not yet confirmed on or before November 15 in the calendar year before the new designations take effect, the Employee will notify the Employer of the day(s) of significance and will provide date(s) as soon as they become available.

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Designated Holidays

Employees are entitled to be paid for 14 designated holidays a year. The schedule of designated holidays rests solely with the Employer or as prescribed by collective agreement.

Designated Holidays

  • New Year’s Day
  • St. Patrick’s Day
  • Good Friday
  • St. George’s Day
  • Victoria (Commonwealth) Day
  • June Holiday
  • Memorial Day
  • Orangemen’s Day
  • Labour Day
  • Thanksgiving Day
  • Armistice (Remembrance) Day
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day
  • one civic holiday, at a time to be determined by the Employer, in the area in which employees reside

Hospital and institutional support staff may be given five extra days paid leave when they are awarded nine designated holidays. The schedule of designated holidays rests solely with the Employer or as prescribed by collective agreement.

Designated Holidays

  • New Year’s Day
  • Good Friday
  • Victoria (Commonwealth) Day
  • Memorial Day
  • Labour Day
  • Armistice (Remembrance) Day
  • Christmas Day
  • Boxing Day
  • one civic holiday, at a time to be determined by the Employer, in the area in which employees reside

An employee shall be entitled to designate replacement statutory holiday(s) that are days of cultural or religious significance to the employee in place of any or all of the statutory holidays outlined.

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Compensation for Holidays

At the Employer’s discretion, employees may be required to work on any or all designated holidays.

When a designated holiday falls on an employee’s day of rest, the employee shall receive one day off in lieu of the designated holiday at a later date approved by the Deputy Minister. If such time off is not granted within two months of the designated holiday, the employee shall receive one day’s pay compensation for the designated holiday.

When an employee is required to work on a designated holiday that falls on a scheduled working day, the employee shall be compensated for the designated holiday and either:

  1. time off with pay at the rate of one and one-half for each hour worked at a later date to be mutually agreed between the Deputy Minister and the employee; or
  2. if such time off is not granted within four months of the designated holiday, payment for hours worked at the rate of one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked on the designated holiday.

When an employee is required to work on a designated holiday that falls on an employee’s normal or assigned day of rest, and where no other day is designated as a holiday in lieu thereof, the employee shall be compensated for the designated holiday and either:

  1. time off with full pay within two months of the designated holiday, at the rate of two hours off for each hour worked, in addition to a day off in lieu of the designated holiday, or if this is not possible;
  2. payment for the equivalent of the time off provided in (a).

Employees on special leave without pay for periods of five days or less, will receive payment for any designated holiday that occurs during that special leave without pay period.

An employee who is on unpaid leave shall not receive payment for a designated holiday occurring during such a period, with the exception of Special Leave Without Pay Policy (as outlined above).

Where an employee has a designated statutory holiday replacement, the newly designated holiday(s) shall be granted as paid day(s) off and shall be the day(s) to which all rights which are normally associated with the specific statutory holiday being replaced are now applied:

  1. the newly designated holiday day(s) will attract all benefits as if that day were the actual statutory holiday that they are designated to replace;
  2. the replaced statutory holiday(s) will become a regular day, whether it be a workday or a day of rest, will not attract any additional benefit previously attributable to it as a statutory holiday: all such benefits will have transferred to the designated replacement day(s);
  3. where the Employer does not provide services on a day described under b above, and where the employee is scheduled to work on that day of the week, the Employer will make reasonable efforts to provide meaningful work to the employee on that day; and
  4. where the employer is unable to provide meaningful work on that day, the employee may access vacation, banked overtime, or other like paid banks to cover the missed day of work.

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Last Policy Update: February 7, 2023