karla03

My vacation days when I start with WESTCAN are 10 days. I recently contacted them and asked how the vacation days work out. I was told, They take part of your wages out to pay for your vacation days. So basically I pay for my own F**king holidays I said. Does this happen throughout the canadian trucking firms......We are getting cold feet now just finding out this nitty gritty HELP

Posted by Karla03 OH

Notiaink...honest

Not just trucking firms. There is nothing unusual about holiday pay schemes like this where you pay a small percentage every check into your holiday account. Its more common for hourly paid employees, but I've been a salaried engineer and had holiday pay arranged in this way. There are legal limits set for the deduction %.

Thing to watch out for is that if you have not paid in enough to cover the time you take off, you will only get paid what you have paid into your holiday account. This sucks if you start work in May, and have a (mandatory) annual plant shut down in July

What this means in practice is that until you have physically been working for 12 months, there will not be a full 10days holiday pay saved up. You can take the time off of course, there just wont be enough saved to cover it.

In some cases they have to pay out the holiday account money after a set period whether you take the vacation or not, so you can be in this holiday pay trap perpetually if you dont put that pay out away for when you need it.

I suppose from an employers point of view it stops people working for them for a week, taking two weeks holiday, and then moving on to a new employer...you get the holiday paid for that you have worked for. Its not at all uncommon in Canada.... just remember to budget for it or else you might be a bit short in the month you take your holiday.

The other lovely side effect of this scheme is that when you finally serve enough time to get three weeks paid vacation...your take home pay will go down as the deduction percentage goes up to cover the extra week off. nice.

Daedra

Just wanted to add to iank (oops, I mean NOTiank) post that most employers in Canada will give you a chance to either redeem your 'banked' vacation time in extra cash on your pay at the end of the Canadian fiscal tax year (think its April 30th but not sure as its been a while away) & sick time (Very often the norm is 10 vacation days, 5 sick days per year), or they will in some cases offer rollover (ie the year you've worked for & not taken holidays will be added on to the next years holiday entitlement) or ask you to book your vacation time in order for the companies accountants to save the extra tax paperwork.

Hope that made sense as reading it back it's confusing even me *lol*

Cookie

Isn't that much the same as the UK?

Salary, pension, even potential sick leave are all worked into your salary package before giving you a final hourly/weekly rate. Not too fair of them though if you were told your rate of pay, then they reduced it to account for holiday pay. My friend who is a contractor in the UK was given 2 rates of pay to chose from - one with paid holiday entitlement and the other unpaid holiday entitlement.

You usually have to accrue annual leave in UK too. It usually works out at 2.# days per month. It's at the company's discretion if they allow you to take more time off than you have accrued.

Notiaink...honest

Difference seems to be that "Holiday pay" is not precalculated and hidden away in your final pay rate, its a real and obvious 4% deduction from your take home pay in each and every cheque. You are right though, it all comes out in the wash.

I guess its a question of visibility...kind of like complaining about the GST and PST sales taxes added to the total all the time...makes no sense to complain about it, especially as you pay less overall than in the UK...its just hidden in the total in the motherland.

Cookie

Your right, it's a bit sneaky to give you an hourly rate then say, "oh and bye the way we will deducting money to pay for your annual leave entitlement...................

Notiaink...honest

Just different thats all, its not really something a canadian would think about as its just "the way it is"
Not all that different to giving an hourly rate and then deducting income taxes, EI, CPP, etc.

Daedra

I must say I'm not really looking forward to that part when we move back to Canada next year... sometimes ignorance is bliss & its nice for us NON-mathematical geniuses to be able to count out our purchase prior to reaching the till

Cookie

I know what you mean. You can't really get the correct amount of money out of your purse whilst you wait in shopping queue. I always seem to have tons of loose change these days because I tend to hand over notes rather than keep other folks waiting in the queue behind me.

Notiaink...honest

Use Interac. Or mastercard.


Does anyone in the UK really keep an exact total in ther head and have the money out ready to pay before the cashier totals it up anyway:?

Daedra

Yeah most planned shopping outtings I'd do that (use the bank card/interac) and sometimes the Visa credit card would be whipped out (sign the receipt needed back when I left in 2004) if I planned on going home & transfering the amount purchased on CC as payment from bank account online transfer... CC purchases being paid before due date is a fast easy way to bring your Canadian credit rating up as CC companies all report monthly on you to Equifax & other credit rating companies.

Still for those unplanned purchases I'm used to paying cash to save bank fees & it was no end off annoyance to find out you were 53 cents short when the taxes were added, talk about holding up qeues & being embarrased?!

Notiaink...honest

Bank Fees?

The advantage of Visa/ MC for everything is its only one transaction to pay it off at the end of the month.

You shoulnt pay fees anyway for transactions, you need to change your bank, or at least threaten to. And remember free transactions when a mimimum balance is maintained is not the same thing as free banking.

Daedra

Bank fees, yes, well that was the norm when i left in 2004.I used to have to pay a flat fe of $5 a month to allow me 15 transactions (in and out) and I direct payment per month. That was withRoyal Bank

Notiaink...honest

Fees are still the norm cos the big banks get away with herding the sheep into it. Try Presidents Choice.

Daedra

Isnt that the Loblaws supermarket (grocers) brand?!