Casual Legal: Employee vacation entitlements

DISCLAIMER: This article is meant to provide information to Alberta Municipalities members only and is not intended to provide legal advice. You should seek the advice of legal counsel to address your specific set of circumstances. Although every effort has been made to provide current and accurate information, changes to the law may cause the information in this article to be outdated. This content is not intended for the general public.

By Rielle Gagnon
Reynolds Mirth Richards Farmer LLP
Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Service Provider

It is common knowledge that employees are entitled to vacation on an annual basis. However, there are often misconceptions about what exactly those entitlements are.

Employees in Alberta have minimum vacation entitlements pursuant to the Employment Standards Code, RSA 2000, c E-9 (the “Code”).

Section 34 of the Code pertains to employees’ basic vacation entitlement, and states that an employer is required to provide an annual vacation to an employee of at least:

• Two (2) weeks after each of the first four (4) years of employment
• Three (3) weeks after five (5) consecutive years of employment and each year of employment after that, subject to some exceptions.

In other words, after each of an employee’s first four (4) years of employment, they are entitled to two (2) weeks of vacation. This amount is increased to three (3) weeks after five (5) years of employment, and each year thereafter.

It is important to keep in mind that these are the minimum vacation entitlement for employees in Alberta. Employers are permitted to provide employees with additional vacation, as long as the amount provided does not fall below the minimums set out in the Code.

Exceptions

For the purpose of calculating vacation pay, an employer may wish to establish a common anniversary date for all employees, or a certain group of employees, in order to make vacation entitlement calculations easier.

Pursuant to section 35 of the Code, if an employer chooses to establish a common anniversary date, then the amount of vacation pay and length of an employee’s vacation must not be reduced to less than what the employee would have received if the common anniversary date had not been established.

Dates for annual vacation

Employers may establish policies surrounding the time during which employees may take vacation, and/or the process employees must follow to request to take their vacation time. However, sometimes, employees and employers cannot reach an agreement as to when an employee may take vacation. In circumstances where an employee and employer are unable to agree to a mutually acceptable date for the employee to start their annual vacation, the employer must give the employee at least two (2) weeks’ written notice of the date on which the employee’s annual vacation will start, and the employee must take the vacation at that time.

To access Alberta Municipalities Casual Legal Helpline, Alberta Municipalities members can call toll-free to 1-800-661-7673 or casuallegal [at] abmunis.ca (email) to reach the municipal legal experts at Reynolds Mirth Richards and Farmer LLP. For more information on the Casual Legal Service, please call 310-MUNI (6864) or riskcontrol [at] abmunis.ca (email) to connect with Alberta Municipalities Risk Management staff. Any Regular or Associate member of Alberta Municipalities can access the Casual Legal Service.