Vulcanoid

dbd33

Afghanistan, Central African Republic, fine. Ontario north of Barrie, not so much.

An aspect of this issue that may not be obvious to people outside Canada is that the cost of flights from, or within, Canada, is such that the availability of vacation is moot.

bc2015

I regularly uninstall any work apps from my phone when on vacation. Last year I even went to the woods for a week with no cell coverage. Guess I was lucky not to lose my job!

Flights within Canada are expensive, flights to outside Canada tend to be more reasonable. Certainly we have never found the cost of flying to the US prohibitive or unreasonable.

Photoplex

This is absolutely, 100%, not the case in the West. In Alberta and BC at least.

It also sounds like you're talking contingent / contract / consultant workers, which really has a special set of circumstances around it too.

dbd33

Contract workers don't have paid holidays so there's nothing to carry over. Otherwise the gap in employment conditions between those with and without a T4 has dwindled to almost nothing.

R I C H

Not sure how you can speak so assuredly about 2 entire provinces. I've several friends in BC that take limited vacation time due to their corporate cultures. I never felt it appropriate to take all my allocated time off for similar reasons, and when I left employed positions had in excess of a month's vacation owing. I found it wasn't unusual to work 8mths+ each year before taking any time off. It was only when I was self-employed that I got to take enough vacation to actually get away from home for a proper holiday.

dbd33

Now that you mention it. My daughter, in Vancouver, always takes the children on holiday without her husband because she has a government job and he works for a private firm. He, at least, works in a culture where it's not usual to take vacation in the early years of employment.

glb19

Only expectation is that they've fully briefed the other people in their team so someone else can pick stuff up if necessary. Most staff do have emails on their phones but if on holiday they're not expected to reply to anything... although most will if they see anything important come through.

Doesn't have any effect on their hours the rest of the year, but it is a job where people can work crazy hours during deadlines so I think the premises behind it is that they kind of deserve the option to take more days off due to the extra amount of hours that everyone will end up racking up during the year.

dbd33

That's pretty much how we work here except that the only people who take time off after a blitz of working are immigrants from countries where it's customary. The cradles don't know what to do with a day off and the Indians are too insecure to take one; a colleague told me that, in Bangalore, he'd approach his chair nervously after each lunch, concerned that there'd be someone else in it.

Something that's common is for people to say "I'm not keeping up with email every day while I'm away, txt me if there's one I must read". I hope someone is kind enough to txt people who's engagement is terminated while they're gone so they can read the "don't come back, FedEx your computer" email.

palm1

Isn't job burn out high if no one can take leave in reality? How is Canada going to entice workers from Europe and Australia (if they are targeting those areas) if the salary is not reflective of the relatively reduced holiday allowance? Holiday allowance in Europe and Australia/New Zealand is at least 18 days

CanadaJimmy

We do get 2 more statutory holidays than the though, 10 days off throughout the year in BC vs England's 8 days off... (yay)

I agree the 2 weeks minimum vacation is a bit lacking, it's one of those things where Canada is only compared to the US, where they get 0 days minimum legally. It should be 4 weeks at least for everyone.

Depends how much you value vacation, also it's not just the government who has to attract people to Canada but also companies, and many companies will offer competing levels of vacation time above the mandated minimum to entice skilled workers to immigrate here.

My current job offers 4 weeks, though it's the first job I had that went above the 2 week minimum after 8 years working in Canada.

palm1

Is the salary in Canada higher to reflect the lower annual leave compared to a very similar job in Europe/Australia?

Kanukki

I think there are far too many variables in play to even try and generalize an answer to that question.

To add another data point, I have 4 weeks holiday + stats in my first Canadian job (public sector). There is no workplace culture that frowns upon using this allowance that I am aware of, rather the contrary. The total number of paid holidays is similar to when I was working in the private sector in the UK, and my salary is on par with what I was earning when I left the UK.

Canada is a big country. There are lots of different types of employers and employment situations. Immigrating to a new country should be a multifaceted decision, and while vacation allotment and salary are important, I personally think there are much more important factors that should sway that decision.

Edo

I think others have provided a great insight on your actual queries, and I certainly do not mean to discourage you from pursuing a career in shipbuilding in Canada. But I would tell you that you have much bigger issues to worry about beyond your benefits package.

Shipbuilding in Canada is unfortunately mostly in the hands of giant family run companies thanks to the Conservative govt’s flawed contracting strategy (I am talking about the three biggest shipbuilders and the majority of their vendors). These business still live in their olden days when they used to be tiny ship repair facilities but ballooned manifolds almost overnight when the federal govt. rolled out the shipbuilding program back in 2011. Despite the govt pumping all the money they could since inception to “develop” these shipyards and even train their people, these folks are still adjusting themselves to the new realities and challenges.

Most of their veterans just doesn’t like the change and often see fresh talent as a threat to their own existence. Most of the time they end up hiring expensive consultants (who have no clue about the marine industry) to perform admin and some basic technical roles but they wont listen to their own staff who have seen and dealt with issues first hand in their previous lives. And once these consultants are in then they look for ways to prolong their time. The veterans also hold a lot of power in decision making and staffing so this should sum up answers to any questions you may have about job security. There is no doubt that their HRs work really hard to source talent from mature shipyards around the world but their overall company cultures evolve around pulling legs and pointing fingers so utilizing quality talent to their advantage takes a back seat.

Besides vested interests, the immaturity and/or lack of process in these companies will astonish you. The work environment is hugely stressful and they also have extremely difficult relationships with the federal bureaucrats who as client’s representatives are equally short of talent since their predecessors who oversaw previous marine projects have been retired long ago. You will hear various stories in the national media from time to time. So in short they are no BAE my friend (not that BAE is 100% problem free but just for comparison's sake). So be prepared!

I do hope you that you find a spectacular role in your preferred location but make sure you read and understand your terms of employment carefully before putting down your signatures.

dbd33

I don't think Canada does try to entice workers from Europe or Australia; they're not high on the list of source countries for immigrants. What's the holiday allowance in China, India, the Philippines?