Legal holidays: Labour Day and Thanksgiving (September 2 and October 14, 2024)
August 26, 2024
Building service employees are entitled a paid holiday for Labour Day (Monday, September 2nd) and for Thanksgiving (Monday, October 14th) 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 employee (permanent) 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 section “Paid Holidays” of the Employer’s Guide to consult our practical tools regarding statutory holidays:
- Statutory Holidays Guide
- Calculation for statutory holidays
- Letter of agreement
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(permanent):
To calculate the holiday pay for the regular employee, the employer must first, establish whether the employee usually works at least 5 days per week or not.
If the employee does not work on a regular schedule, he is considered working at least 5 days per week if it has been the case at least 5 times in the 8 preceding weeks.
The regular employee who works less than 5 days per week is entitled to a holiday pay of 20% of his preceding pay (or 10% if the pay is biweekly).
The regular employee who works 5 days or more per week is entitled to a holiday pay according to his regular schedule.
Since these holidays fall on Mondays, to calculate the holiday pay for the regular employee, the employer must establish if Monday is a normal working day for the employee or not.
Even if the employee does not always work on Mondays, it is a normal working day for him if he has been working at least 5 Mondays on the 8 preceding weeks.
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 holiday according to the usual number of hours worked on that day.
If the employee does not always work the same number of hours on that day, then the employer must calculate an average of the last 5 worked Mondays.
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 is biweekly).
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 (3) 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 of 3 hours)
OR
Pay the hours worked on the holiday and carry over the holiday within the eight (8) 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 “Paid Holidays” of the Employer’s Guide.
To know more about statutory holidays, consult section Paid Holidays of the Employer’s Guide, the Employee’s Guide, or consult article 7 of the Decree.