Thanksgiving
Day a public holiday under Employment Standards Act, 2000
TORONTO,
Sept. 22 /CNW/ - Many workers will get the day off with public
holiday
pay on Thanksgiving Day on Monday, October 11, 2004. Thanksgiving Day
is
one of eight public holidays under Ontario's Employment Standards Act,
2000.
QUALIFYING FOR THANKSGIVING DAY ENTITLEMENTS
Generally, employees qualify for Thanksgiving
Day entitlements unless
they
fail, without reasonable cause, to work:
- Their
entire regularly-scheduled shift before or after Thanksgiving
Day; or
- Their
entire shift on Thanksgiving Day if they agreed or were required
to work that day.
Public holiday pay is an amount equal to an
employee's regular wages
earned
in the four work weeks prior to Thanksgiving Day plus any vacation pay
payable
during that period, divided by 20.
Employees who qualify for
Thanksgiving Day entitlements can be full-time,
part-time,
permanent or on a limited-term contract. They can also be students.
It
does not matter how recently they were hired or how many days they
worked
before
Thanksgiving Day.
ENTITLEMENTS IF YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO WORK ON
THANKSGIVING DAY
Qualified employees are entitled to take off
Thanksgiving Day with public
holiday
pay. They can also agree in writing to work on Thanksgiving Day and:
- Be
paid their regular rate for all hours worked on Thanksgiving Day
plus receive a substitute
holiday with public holiday pay; or
- If
the employee and employer agree in writing, be paid public holiday
pay plus "premium
pay" of one-and-a-half times their regular rate for
all hours worked on
Thanksgiving Day.
ENTITLEMENTS IF THANKSGIVING DAY IS A
NON-WORKING DAY
If Thanksgiving Day falls on a non-working or
vacation day, qualified
employees
can either take a substitute work day off with public holiday pay
or,
if they agree in writing, they can receive public holiday pay for
Thanksgiving
Day with no substitute day off.
ENTITLEMENTS FOR NON-QUALIFIED EMPLOYEES
Generally, employees who don't qualify for
public holiday entitlements
must
work on Thanksgiving Day if asked by their employer. Most non-qualified
employees
are entitled to be paid one-and-a-half times their regular rate of
pay
for each hour worked on Thanksgiving Day. There is no substitute day
off.
If a non-qualified employee is
not asked to work on Thanksgiving Day, he
or
she gets the day off with no pay.
SPECIAL RULES / EXCEPTIONS
Retail employees
Most employees who work in retail businesses
-- businesses that sell
goods
or services to the public -- have the right to refuse to work on
Thanksgiving
Day even if they don't qualify for public holiday entitlements.
Retail employees who have
agreed to work on Thanksgiving Day may still
refuse
the assignment if they give their employer 48 hours advance notice
before
the first hour of work on Thanksgiving Day.
However, these rules for
retail employees do not apply to those who work
for
businesses that primarily:
- Sell
prepared meals (restaurants, cafeterias, cafés, etc.)
- Rent
living accommodations (hotels, tourist resorts, camps, inns,
etc.)
- Provide
educational, recreational or amusement services to the public
(museums, art galleries,
sports stadiums, etc.)
- Sell
goods and services that are incidental to the businesses
described above and are
located on the same premises (museum gift
shops, souvenir shops in
sports stadiums, etc.).
Under the Retail Business Holidays Act, most
retail outlets must close on
Thanksgiving
Day.
Hospital, continuous operations and
hospitality employees
Employees in hospitals, continuous operations
and the hospitality
industry
may be required to work on Thanksgiving Day if it falls on a day they
would
normally work and if they are not on vacation. This applies to employees
who
work for hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, motels, tourist resorts,
restaurants
and taverns, as well as to employees who work for continuous
operations
(operations or parts of operations that do not shut down or close
down
more than once a week such as oil refineries and alarm monitoring
companies).
Elect-to-work employees
Elect-to-work employees -- those who decide
without penalty whether or
not
to work when requested -- are not covered by the public holidays
provisions
of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 except for the right to be
paid
one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for each hour worked on
Thanksgiving
Day.
EMPLOYEES NOT ELIGIBLE FOR PAID PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
Some employees are not eligible for Thanksgiving Day entitlements
because
public
holiday provisions under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 do not
apply
to certain jobs. These employees include:
- Seasonal workers
(employees who work for an employer no more than
16 weeks in a calendar year) in
a hotel, motel, tourist resort,
restaurant or
tavern who are provided with room and board
-
Taxicab drivers
-
Professionals such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, architects,
chiropodists, chiropractors,
dentists, massage therapists,
optometrists, pharmacists,
professional engineers, physiotherapists,
psychologists, public
accountants, surveyors, veterinarians and those
covered under the Drugless
Practitioners Act
-
Students in training for any of the professions listed above
-
Students who instruct or supervise children or who work at a
children's camp or recreational
program operated by a charitable
organization
-
Hunting and fishing guides, commercial fishers and some farm
workers
-
Commissioned salespeople, except route salespeople, who normally
work
away from their employer's place
of business
-
Employees who install and maintain swimming pools
-
Employees in landscape gardening, mushroom growing, or the growing,
transporting and laying of sod
-
Employees who grow flowers or trees and shrubs for retail and
wholesale trade
-
Employees who breed and board horses on a farm or who keep
fur-bearing
mammals for propagation or the
production of pelts for commercial
purposes
-
Construction workers who receive 7.3 per cent or more of their
wages
for vacation pay or holiday pay
-
Residential building superintendents, janitors or caretakers who
live
in the building
-
Firefighters
-
Registered real estate salespeople.
INFORMATION SOURCES
For more information, employees and employers may call the Ontario
Ministry
of Labour's Employment Standards General Inquiry Line at
(416)
326-7160 or 1-800-531-5551, or they may check the blue pages of their
local
phone book for the nearest Ministry of Labour office.
Written information -- including
employment standards fact sheets on
subjects
such as public holidays -- can be accessed via the Ontario Ministry
of
Labour's:
- Website at
www.gov.on.ca/lab/
-
Publications Office by calling 1-800-809-4731 toll free or
(416) 326-7731 in the Toronto
area.
PUBLIC INQUIRIES (Employees and
Employers):
Pay rates and time off: Store
openings:
Ministry of Labour
Ministry of Consumer and Business Services
(416) 326-7160 or
(416) 326-8800 or
1-800-531-5551
1-800-889-9768
