Canadians being shorted on vacation time: report
Updated Tue. Jul. 31 2007 11:16 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A new report says Canada is not keeping up with many of its global neighbours when it comes to the amount of vacation time provided to its workers.
The report by the Canadian Labour Congress compares vacation rates among member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as among the provinces.
The report finds that Canadian workers get less paid vacation time than almost all the other developed countries. It also calls for the federal and provincial governments to move to a new national legal minimum of 10 paid statutory holidays and three weeks paid vacation after one year of service.
"Considering that all school-age children are on vacation for two months in the summer, the legal vacation regime in Canada cannot be said to be family-friendly," said the report from the pro-union group.
According to the comparison of statutory annual leave minimums among member countries, Canada is near the bottom of the list. It is behind Australia, Austria, Belgium, France and Denmark, to name just a few of the countries that offer more paid time off to their workers -- in some cases more than double the Canadian average.
Of the 21 countries involved in the study, only Japan and the U.S. are behind Canada. Japan offers 10 work days as a minimum annual vacation time, but no paid statutory holidays.
The U.S. is the only developed country on the list that has no minimum vacation standards, whether federally or state-by-state, and does not require employers to pay workers for statutory holidays.
Canada offers an average of two weeks paid time off plus eight paid statutory holidays, according to the study.
But Canada has no national standard, and the rate of two weeks (three with seniority) is an average of all the provincial and territorial standards.
Within the provinces, vacation rates also vary widely.
"The upcoming Civic Holiday reminds us that hard-working Canadians get a very limited right to paid time off the job relative to workers in similar economies," said Ken Georgetti, the president of the CLC, in a release.
"The first Monday in August is a statutory holiday in only three provinces and two territories. While some provinces, like Ontario, offer only two weeks of paid vacation each year, Saskatchewan offers up to 4 weeks of paid vacation after 10 years of service. I think Canadians, in general, deserve better no matter where they live."
Following is a list of each country's total statutory minimum annual leave, combining paid vacation time and statutory holidays.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I believe the US has a stat. holiday in every month, which I think should become a modest goal for Canadians. Here in BC, we would need to pick up holidays in February, June, and we might as well get one each in March and April, since Easter is so fickle. My birthday isn't in any of those months, so we'd have to come up with other pretexts for celebrations. Suggestions?
This is a bit of a tangent, but I believe the US has a stat. holiday in every month, which I think should become a modest goal for Canadians. Here in BC, we would need to pick up holidays in February, June, and we might as well get one each in March and April, since Easter is so fickle. My birthday isn't in any of those months, so we'd have to come up with other pretexts for celebrations. Suggestions?
The U.S. has 10 holidays that MOST, but definitely not all, working people get paid for, whether they are working on that day or not, but obviously not one in every month. There are two in January and November, and one each in February, May, July, September, October, and December. There are none in March, April, June, and August. I used to live in the U.S. and the last two jobs I had there, we got nine paid holidays per year. For each, you could get paid for Martin Luther King day or Veterans day (same as Remembrance day here) but not both. I'm not sure if that was because those are each in months with two holidays or because Veterans day is fixed to the 11th and that day is not always a Monday or Friday like many holidays.
Thanks, Billionairess, I stand corrected. I still figure we should have one every month, even if the Americans don't.
How about these?
February - Flag Day (Feb. 15)
March - Vernal Equinox
April - April 10 (4-10); since 10-4 is my birthday, April 10 is my opposite birthday
June - Summer Solstice
Then we're done. But, we might as well add the Autumnal Equinox (usually my daughter's birthday). The Winter Solstice is, of course, already covered by its very-near neighbour Christmas.
November 11th is not a stat holiday in all provinces (though banks and government are closed) so make that one national.
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But I think that it would be a good idea to add 5 more. Maybe four through labour standards and one as a statutory holiday. I don't know if it's more efficient to do all at once or to transition. My guess is that it's easier all at once: announce it a minimum of one year ahead of time, and get all the paperwork changes done at once.
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