palm1

This is my first post so be patient.

I'm looking to emmigrate to Canada once my UK Engineering Chartership comes through to work in marine/ship construction. So far there are a few jobs that I have seen that I stand a fair chance of getting. The jobs are generally focused in either Vancouver/Ontario/Halifax. So far everything except the holiday allowance about emmigrating to Canada from the UK looks good. 10 days is the Canadian legal minimum holiday allowance which doesn't seem ideal. The sort of jobs I'd be going for are at Engineering design companies e.g. Vard in Ontario. Before chucking a load of resumes I'd like to know if, in reality, the holiday allowance in Canada is actually 10 days, and whether this extra time in the office is actually productive. If I can get a reply that'd help thanks

christmasoompa

Hi, welcome to BE. If you search the forums you'll find a fair few threads to read through about holiday allowance, with loads of info and opinions on.

Just checking that you are already work authorised or a Canadian citizen? Just that if you require sponsorship and a LMIA it may be tricky to find a job with no experience, but those in the engineering industry will be able to advise on your chances of that.

Good luck.

palm1

I shouldn't need sponsorship and a LMIA as I've got a solid engineering background in a skill shortage area. But I'll double check.

dbd33

It's not usual to take those 10 days. Some people do, of course, typically for weddings and funerals at home, that sort of thing, but there's no custom of taking time off just to have time off.

Atlantic Xpat

OP, on this subject, take dbd's comments with a large pinch of salt. His experience is not typical of most. Vacation allowance will governed by employer, seniority of position, market, possibly union etc etc. As Christmas says, it's a subject that has been discussed endlessly before. My employer starts new employees off on 3 weeks. I get 4 because of my position. I am taking three weeks off this summer without an issue.

In your field, you'd likely be working for a larger company such as JD Irving Group (who own Halifax Shipyard). I expect they have a detailed but probably not very negotiable in terms of getting extra, holiday package. https://www.irvingshipbuilding.com/i...-wellness.aspx

dbd33

It's true that I'm not exposed to people who don't have a keyboard in front of them all week and it may be that engineering is a more relaxed kind of a job. Nonetheless, a constant point of comparison between companies is what they allow you to do with those 10 days. Some companies pay for them at the end of the year, some allow multi-year accrual even until retirement, some say they're lost at the end of December. If it was customary to take the days then roll over policies would not be a matter of general concern.

BristolUK

I believe this was the most recent thread on the subject.

Siouxie

Hello and welcome to BE! Please be aware that 'Engineer' is a protected and regulated profession in Canada - you would need to be Provincially registered in order to use it or work in that field.

https://engineerscanada.ca/regulator...ing-regulators
http://www.peo.on.ca/index.php/ci_id/2057/la_id/1.htm
https://engineersnovascotia.ca/regis...ted-engineers/
https://www.egbc.ca/Become-a-Member

10 days vacation is very common - sometimes people are able to negotiate longer (if they are sought after) but employers are not necessarily required to give you any more than that until you have built up some seniority / years of employment. It's often down to your negotiation skills and/or how much they want you!

bc2015

Exactly this. Since I arrived in Canada I have 3 jobs with vacation allowances as follows: 28 days, unlimited, 20 days (all plus stat holidays). My wife has 20 days soon to be 21 days. Neither of us have any issue getting time off and it's always been encouraged across my employers. I do wonder where these jobs with only 10 days holidays that aren't really encouraged to be taken are.

spouse of scouse

'Unlimited' vacation allowance? How does that work?

Vulcanoid

People are trusted to manage their own work/vacation balance to get stuff done, and it would flag as poor performance if you're taking time off which means your work doesn't get done.

You never get told "You can't take that time off, that would take you to 29 days and you're only allowed 28".

You could still find you get told "You can't take that time off, we already have too many people away from the office to cover business needs at that time".

In reality, studies of firms who've implemented it tend to find either little impact (people just take 3-4 weeks over the year as they would anyway), or even a reduction in time taken (as feeling peer pressure to not be seen to be the person taking advantage of the unlimited allowance for time off).

bc2015

Just means that vacation isn't really tracked and so long as you have agreement from manager you are free to take as much (or as little) time off as you want. Of course, it doesn't mean that you can take 6 months off but certainly people were taking up to 6 weeks a year and 4 weeks at a time. We did have 15 days written in the contract but on-one really paid any attention to that.

dbd33

In Canada, I've mainly worked in the GTA, some in Ottawa.

There's no need to discourage people from taking holidays, the attitude of the cradle staff is that is that there's something shameful about taking holidays, they're not inclined to do it. Because there's no established concept of holiday taking there's a cultural clash with Europeans who are accustomed to taking holidays. I wonder how immigrants who do not adopt the local work ethic avoid seeming lazy.


Right now I'm planning for the situation that someone here, an immigrant. is intending to take a month off, continuous, unpaid, to go home. If he does I know he will be dis-employed while he's gone. He's aware that that often happens and is open to the risk. My problem is that I'll need another body at short notice to replace him but can't go and get one now because he might not go and, if he does, they might not fire him anyway.

glb19

My current job in the UK implemented this 2 years ago. As a minimum all staff are supposed to take 25 days, and then can take more if they want to. For the most part people are responsible with it as long as they speak to their team and make sure there's cover, though we had a few cheeky ones that tried their luck with 35-40 days. It was approved but they still got a talking to!

It's one of the main things I'll miss when I leave this job to go back to Canada, not expecting to find a job that's anywhere near as generous.

dbd33

What are the expectations of people who go on vacation? I like people to keep up with email, which means they can't go anywhere without internet, but I don't expect them to respond to anything non-critical; it's just a matter of keeping up. If people have a lot of holiday, is more demanded of them while they're away or do they work 24/7 the rest of the year to achieve their 1700 (or whatever it is) annual billed hours?