Annual vacation leave

[stealth08]

I have heard that the majority of companies in Canada only allow a worker to have 2 weeks of annual vacation leave. That is a big reduction compared to UK's 25 days annual leave. Is this true?

[Leon]

Yes, it is quite common both in Canada and the US that you only have 2 weeks paid vacation per year.  It depends on the province as well as the employer.  In AB it goes up to 3 weeks after 5 years of work.  Some companies may be more generous to give it to you earlier than that and even going up to 4 weeks after some time.  Of course you can always ask for unpaid vacation as well.

It is also uncommon to have paid sick days.  If you are sick on a long term basis, you can get unemployment but there is a two week waiting period for that.  Therefore, for any illness of less than 2 weeks, you get nothing.

For work accidents, you have workmen's comp so you do get paid 85% while you are off work because of a work accident.  If you clear it with your employer, he may even pay you 100% not to go through workmen's comp because it costs him more if it goes through them.

[martha marita]

Hey Stealth, Its a big difference, get prepared.  Employment in canada has different terminologies,
Permanent Full time and Part time permanet and then Temporary contracts which are just fixed for 3 months, or 6 months or 1 year.  When you  temp you dont get employment benefits like sick leaves, annual leaves you take then at the end of the contract or you ask your pay stub to include pay. 

For Perm f/t and part time perm they get all benefits like 10 days sick live every year and then 1 floater day off, 2 weeks annual leave.  At my employer she allows me to bank hours instead of taking 1 hour lunch break i take half an hour and bank the extra half an hour which allows me to go for dental appointment other  coz am tem i dont get paid, unlike uk when if you work for 1 month you are entitle for 2 days leave etc.  So make sure you get ready for this change!!  I have adjusted though.

[Leon]

It is also very surprising to people coming from Europe that the employer has the right to send you home without pay if there is no work.  This is at least the case in Alberta.  The employer can cut your hours in which case you only get paid for the fewer hours that you actually work but he could also lay you off temporarily with one day notice and that means you go home and wait for him to call you back or you look for a new job.  You can be on temporary lay off for up to 2 months before he either has to call you back to work or lay you off permanently with proper notice.  If you are on temporary or permanent lay off, you can get employment insurance after a 2 week waiting period.

[martha marita]

Yeh Leon the Employment Insurance will only be elligiible to you depending on how many hours you worked, some provinces accept 560 hours and some 900 hours or so and you must have been working for atleast may be six months.  So not easy, I was on contract for 4 months i had 553 hours so i could not qualificy for EI luckily it got extended for another 6 months.  In the meantime no benefits i.e. medical, annual leave, sick leave etc.  BTW if you qualify for EI it last for 1 year while you are job searching or thinking on what to do.  Its i think 55 percent of your wages but not to exceed a certain amount.  Its a pain though

[Leon]

Yeh Leon the Employment Insurance will only be elligiible to you depending on how many hours you worked, some provinces accept 560 hours and some 900 hours or so and you must have been working for atleast may be six months.  So not easy, I was on contract for 4 months i had 553 hours so i could not qualificy for EI luckily it got extended for another 6 months.  In the meantime no benefits i.e. medical, annual leave, sick leave etc.  BTW if you qualify for EI it last for 1 year while you are job searching or thinking on what to do.  Its i think 55 percent of your wages but not to exceed a certain amount.  Its a pain though

Yes, you have to qualify for EI first, that is true.  The hours you need to have worked depend on how much unemployment there is in your area.  You need between 420 and 700 hours to qualify.

The number of weeks you can get it depend both on how many hours you have worked and the unemployment in your area.  The maximum is 50 weeks.  The minimum is 19.

It is 55% of your gross wages but the maximum is $457 a week.

If you are laid off temporarily and do your 2 week waiting period then, your file stays open for a year so if you are laid off again within the same year, you don't have to wait, you just re-open your file.

[floss2010]

one thing people forget to mention when they compare the UK annual leave to the canadian is the UKs annual leave begins immediatly you get the 20-25 days the first year.  In canada you get no annual leave days the first year you have to stick at the job over a year to get your 10 days, so if you where to leave your job and get another one you have to do another year without annual leave so the like of for example working for a recruitment agency and being taken onto the company you worked for through them you have to reset your year you must complete to get your 10 days

[scylla]

floss2010 -

The rules you have stated only apply to certain companies and industries. There are many companies that give you annual leave the first year you join.

[rubyalabar]

are you guys talking about what's mandated by law or company-provided leave on top of what is by law?

anyway, just to share- my husband started working for his employer Dec.1,2008 and he was able to avail of annual leave Dec.12,2009 for 3weeks/15 working days

he received his annual holiday pay the following january which is also 3 weeks worth of wages. i think they average the total wages you got for the previous 52 weeks and multiply it by 3.

he was told that after 5 years of continuous employment, annual leave will be 4 weeks/20 working days.

[Canadian Career Coach]

It's often up to the company to allow you take vacation within, or after the first year.  In most cases you have to accrue it before you take it.  The amount of time you get also fluctuates.  It's not uncommon in more junior positions, or in a retail/store sales environment to only get 2 weeks to start. 

If you work for a larger company, 3 weeks is becoming more common. 

How fast companies increase the amount of vacation you receive is up to them.  Many use a 5 year rule to increase it by a week, each time, but it's up to them.  Many Senior Leadership positions start with a minimum of 4 weeks.  There is more negotiating power at the senior level positions.

It's extremely rare to find any organization to allow employees to earn more than 6 weeks.  Those that even get this amount are going to be very long service employees, eg) 20+ years service.  I believe the Federal Government employees can reach up to 6 weeks after long service, but I'm not very familiar with their collective union agreement.