Legal holidays: september 6th and october 11

Building service employees are entitled a paid holiday for Labour Day (September 6th) and for Thanksgiving (October 11th) even if they work part time or if the holiday does not fall on a usual working day.

The holiday pay:

The calculation of the holiday pay is not the same for the regular (permanent) employee and the non regular employee. A regular employee is one that has accumulated at least 280 hours of work for the same employer, regardless of his full time or part time status.

After reading these explanations, please refer to our calculation tool for statutory holidays in section “Practical tools” if you need more help to calculate your employee’s holiday pay.

The employee who is not a regular employee:

For each holiday, such employee is entitled to a holiday pay which equals 1/20th of the wages earned during the four complete weeks of pay preceding the week of the holiday, excluding overtime hours. The employee is entitled to these holidays even if they do not fall on a normal working day.

The regular employee:

Since these holidays fall on Mondays, in order to calculate the holiday pay for the regular employee, the employer must establish if Monday is a normal work day for the employee or not.

When the holiday falls on a working day for this employee (i.e. the employee usually works on that day), the employer must pay the indemnity for the holiday according article 7.02 of the Decree (consult section The Decree to learn more).

If the employee doesn’t usually work on Mondays,

the employer may:

• Allow the employee a paid holiday on the preceding or following working day. He must then pay the holiday as explained above.

OR

• Pay the holiday by calculating 20% of the preceding pay period (or 10% if the pay period is two weeks), without allowing any other day off.

Worked Holiday

For the employee who is not a regular employee:

If a non regular employee must work on the day of the holiday,

the employer may:

• pay the hours worked at regular rate and pay the indemnity as explained above

OR

• pay the hours worked at regular rate and allow a compensatory holiday within the three weeks period before or after that day.

For the regular employee:

If the employer needs the regular employee to work on the holiday,

he may:

• Pay the holiday as explained above and pay the hours worked at time and a half (minimum 3 hours)

OR

• Pay the hours worked on the holiday and carry over the holiday within the three weeks preceding or following the holiday (upon the condition of a written agreement between the employer and the employee). For an example of a letter of agreement, consult section Practical tools.

To know more about legal holidays, consult the Employer’s Guide or of the Employee’s Guide, or consult article 7 of the Decree.