An employee is entitled to an annual vacation of 2 weeks after 12 consecutive months of employment, and 3 weeks after 5 consecutive years of employment. There is no entitlement to annual vacation in the first year of employment.
An employer must schedule an employee's vacation in periods of one or more weeks unless the employee requests otherwise, and must ensure the employee takes the vacation within 12 months of earning it.
An employer may use a common date for calculating the annual vacation entitlement of all employees so long as no employee's right to an annual vacation or vacation pay is reduced.
An employee's period of consecutive employment is not interrupted by the sale, lease or transfer of a business.
In the first 4 years in which an employee is entitled to take annual vacation, the employer must pay vacation pay of at least 4 per cent of all wages paid to the employee in the preceding year. In the fifth and following years of entitlement, the employer must pay vacation pay of at least 6 per cent of total wages from the previous year. Any vacation pay received by an employee is counted as part of the total wages paid in a particular year.
Vacation pay is payable at least 7 days before the start of the annual vacation, or on regular pay days if agreed by the employer and the employee, or by a collective agreement.
An employer cannot reduce an employee's annual vacation or vacation pay because the employee was paid a bonus or sick pay, or was previously given a vacation longer than the minimum. However, these vacation entitlements may be reduced if an employee took annual vacation in advance at the employee's written request.
A person employed less than 5 calendar days is not entitled to vacation pay.
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