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Archived - Overview of Part III of the Canada Labour Code (Labour Standards)

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Division V - General Holidays

9 General Holidays:

• New Year’s Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Good Friday
• Remembrance
• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Christmas Day
• Labour Day
• Boxing Day

Substitution of General Holiday

• Substitution may occur with approval of 70% of affected employees.
• Notice must be posted for at least 30 days before substitution takes effect.
• If collective agreement applies, substitution must be agreed to in writing by the employer and the trade union.

Eligibility for a holiday with pay:

1. Employee must be employed at least 30 days with the same employer.
2. Employee must have entitlement to wages for at least 15 out of 30 days preceding holiday.
   • Employees who are unable to meet 15/30 requirement due to their terms and conditions of employment are eligible to 1/20^th of the wages they earned in the previous thirty calendar days.

When a General Holiday falls on a non-working day:

1. Employee is entitled to a holiday with pay at some other time.
2. When New Year’s Day, Canada Day, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the employee shall receive the day immediately preceding or following as the holiday.

Working on General Holiday

Employees who are required to work on a general holiday may be entitled to additional compensation, depending if the employee works in a “continuous” or “non continuous” operation.

What is a Continuous Operation?

As certain federal undertakings are involved with the running of trains, planes, ships, and trucks, that they cannot suspend operations on general holidays and that some or all employees can be required to work on those days, alternate methods of granting general holiday entitlements were devised.

Non Continuous Operation

• If an employee works on a General Holiday in a non continuous operation, he or she must be paid his or her regular rate of wages for the holiday, plus time and one half for all hours worked.
• If employee works variable hours or has different wage rates, the “Regular rate of wages” is calculated as an average of the last twenty days worked.

Continuous Operation

If an employee works on a General Holiday in a continuous operation, the employer has three options:

1. Pay employee a “days pay” plus time and one half for all hours worked.
2. Give employee another day off with pay.
3. If there is a collective agreement, employee receives general holiday pay entitlement, for the first day on which employee does not work.

An employee is not entitled to general holiday pay, if the employee does not report to work, after having been called to work on that day.

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Date Modified:

2011-11-22