Is it true?
 

Hi there,

Was re reading my "Moving to Canada" books (again :) ) at the weekend and came across a bit that said Canadians only have two weeks holiday a year?? I know that holidays can differ depending on the job that you're doing but was just wondering if this was true? and what the average was? Need to let the old friends and family know, how often they can come & have free holidays :)

Re: Is it true?
 

That seems to be about right- 10 days a year, so not much at all unfortunately! I think some of the people who post here work in international companies and so get about 25 days that way.

(If I ever get out there I don't plan to spend every single day of my holiday allowance looking after visitors! They can stay at my place and we can meet up in the evenings, but having to babysit them every day would drive me nuts anyway, so I don't think it's such a bad thing :D!)

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Guess I'll have to make the most of my weekends! Fair point about the visitors, all my friends are in couples so I'm sure they can entertain themselves during the day ;)

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"Except as otherwise provided by or under this Division, every employee is entitled to and shall be granted a vacation of at least two weeks with vacation pay and, after six consecutive years of employment by one employer, at least three weeks with vacation pay in respect of every year of employment by that employer."

Plus of course general holidays. I got that information from the google cache of http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/L-2/
The page is being updated at the moment so maybe they'll up the vacation time :beer:

I was amazed to see how much time off Brits get. Canadian policy seems just like what I get here in the states. I think employers get to choose whether or not you get paid sick days or not. I'll be interested to see if anyone says that my (in the states) current 12 sick days (6 of which can be arbitrary "personal days") is common practice.

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In the UK we are wrapped up in a nice warm employment law blanket.

We started our leave year in January and I have 31 days. 3 of those were purchased off the company (they also let you sell up to 3), so it really is only 28. I think I can be off sick for 3 months on full pay, and then an insurance policy taken out on our behalf by the company allows us full pay until we return to work, retire or die (whichever happens first).

The 10 days holiday thing is going to be a big shock to the system if I ever get over there. I'm about to take a week off to get some decorating done. If I did that in Canada that would be half my holiday :eek:

Chris

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If you wanted extra time off would you be allowed to take unpaid leave?

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Its not just a Canadian thing, rather it is a North American thing. US companies are the same.

It is quite usual to start off in a company with two weeks holidays in addition to the 11-13 stat. holiday days observed. Extra holiday as in the UK is gained through longer service.

However its is also entirely possible to get more vacation time as part of the negotiation process over a new job. e.g. offer you 2 and ask for 3 etc etc. In both the job's I've had since being here I have negotiated 4 weeks vacation. Maybe I'm lucky or just a good negotiator! :D It does depend on what sort of job, level and how much you are needed. I have played extra vacation time against salary, e.g. ok if you wont pay me an extra x dollars can I have another week off?

Franky its one of those things you either deal with and accept in moving here or you go live somewhere else. You are not going to change an entire culture by complaining about it. (Not an accusation at you but rather an observation on the responses to this subject that come up time and time again.)

AX

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Two weeks is still fairly typical I think. You get more if you work for government.

I believe that it is also common for employers to expect new employees not to take any leave during the first year.

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Mebbe on the mainland, but not here. Admittedly taking 2 weeks a month into the job probably would be frowned upon but that would be true in the Uk too.

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In that scenario would it mean that you could carry your entire (swoon) 10 days over into the next year, or that you just wouldn't get any holiday allowance that year?

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Well as I never really take my holiday in the UK & always end up with loads to try & carry over, not too bothered! People are just going to have to visit me so I don't waste any holiday ;)

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Maybe, but probably not as there is a huge knock on effect with extra overtime or temps to cover for you, and a lot of "me too"ing

3 weeks is becoming more common in salaried jobs. Certainly worth trying to negotiate for at the hiring stage.

Watch out for "holiday pay" though, it means that often although you can take 2 weeks vacation, you may not have paid enough into your holiday pay account by the time you take your holiday to actually get two weeks pay for the time you take off :(

Re: Is it true?
 

In Saskatchewan the law is - a day and a quarter per month. That is how you earn your holidays. That means 15 days after working for a year. I believe after 10 years it goes up to 4 weeks holidays. It can be more but it can't be less than that.

I should mention that the link that danderson posted was a federal government law. I am pretty sure even in Saskatchewan, if you work for the federal government you get 2 weeks. My son once worked in a grain elevator and they were covered by federal law so they only got two weeks.

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I used to feel I had too much holiday too, in the UK. It was nice to have a 2 weeks holiday in the summer, and especially when the kids were younger the odd week when they were off (half-terms especially) needed to be covered between us. Or if they were off-school, sick,.... but then my mum used to help out. They went to play-schemes at Easter and in the summer.

But latterly I always seemed to find I still had 3 weeks or more to take after Christmas, and then we were leaned on as we were only supposed to have a week between Jan and April! I dunno ..... I didn't really feel I wanted it, and anyway I would have to work twice as hard in the week before to make sure there were no loose ends whilst I was off, then even harder on my return to catch up, as nobody did my work for me when I was away! It never seemed worth the hassle!

The job I'm about to start .... y'know I'm not even sure what the holiday entitlements are ... probably I don't get any as I am employed as "casual" to start with. However, full-time is 40 hours a week, in fourteen 7.5 hr days ...... you get every third Friday off anyway! So I'm not worried about days off :D

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You can't take your annual leave without working that year first in most cases here - and then it can be summarily cancelled or you can be bumped by a "senior" employee wanting the same time off. Be warned that you get no recompense if you have booked flights and then lose the time off. In BC, its considered your problem. This has happened to me twice. :mad:

Re: Is it true?
 

Hmm, think I'll stay in Newfoundland then! ;)

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Not sure. I've only been in the situation once, when I worked for the Canadian government in the UK. The rule was that you accrued leave monthly and you couldn't use it before you'd earned it. I was also told that I was expected not to take any leave during the year in which I joined (I joined in July). I cannot remember if I rolled the unused leave over to the next year or simply lost it.

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With the "holiday pay" scheme typically you cant carry it over, they usually just pay out the money in the holiday pay account and you lose the right to that time off. I have never worked for a company here that allows you to bank the holiday allowance, you simply use it or lose it. So in that particular case I could take 2 weeks holiday, but as I had only worked 8 months before the manditory shutdown, I only got 8/12th of the two weeks pay in that pay period:(

Its not even like they are paying you 54 weeks for 52 worked if you dont take the vacation and they pay out the holiday account money, the holiday pay is skimmed off at a percentage rate as you go, to cover for when you arent there.

All of this misses the central point though which is that most people get by on the measly holiday allowance. My theory is that as my life is so much less stressfull here, I dont need 5 weeks in the sun to enjoy life. It would be nice to have more time to explore Canada a bit more though...not that I could afford the air fares, but thats a different gripe I suppose :(

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I think we were allowed to bank it later on. Just as well; it's quite hard to use up five weeks plus all the public holidays. One year, when they had surplus budget to use up, I sold them back 17 days in one go.

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I also heard that some companies expect you to work ALL of the public holidays too - please tell me that's not the case!

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At my last job my manager told me just at the end of the day that I should be working the next day which was a public holiday. At least I got paid statutory holiday pay. My co-workers had buggered off or had excuses ready. Where I worked it was expected that the office be partially staffed on public holidays so if not enough volunteers could be found if might be demanded of you.

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Yeah and weekends. In fact when I were a lad in't mill we used to work 24 hrs a day 7 days a week and we thought we were well off. Canada's just like that! :eek:

As with so much about such a large country it does depend on where you are, what you are doing, what level you are. Unless you are in a sweatshop, Tim Hortons, a 24/7 call centre etc etc they cant make you work stat holidays. If you do work em you get paid in lieu or additional time off. (I use the example of my MIL who is a Nurse.) I happily took 4 weeks off in my first year in my last job. My employers had no problem with that, I was doing what they paid me for and vacation was an entitlement that makes for happy workers. Happy workers are productive workers. QED. Maybe I'm just lucky!

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I would expect that you get double pay for holidays, 1 day for the day you had off, and another for the day you worked.

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LMAO :D :D :D

Noooooooo! No such thing as double pay and yes, many employers expect you to work public holidays, particularly in the service industry. American owned companies often do not recognise Canadian holidays either, although they are supposed to give you the choice to work or not. Forget UK labour laws, what passes for employment legislation is nothing like as protective here and you can get fired for nothing. Unions are no good, even where they have (illegal) closed shops. Redundancy in BC - after two years - one week for every year worked and many won't pay that. It's a whole different world here.
Good point I should add: SMOKE FREE WORK PLACES :)

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My husband just got a job where three weeks vacation is standard, but he negotiated an extra week unpaid - almost got two weeks extra but someone in the company changed their mind at the last minute! :p Plus the office is usually closed during Xmas and that doesn't cut into the three weeks (but you can't count on the Xmas break since it isn't official, just tradition). He can't take any holiday during his first 4 months (probation) but after that he can start taking vacation - he doesn't have to 'earn it'. I guess it just depends on the company. We are in Halifax, so maybe Atlantic Canada is just more relaxed about these things! :D

Re: Is it true?
 

OK, now I'm curious. What do you do for a living?