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.