The Act respecting labour standards applies to most employees in Quebec. An employee is a person who works for an employer and who earns a wage or salary.

However, the Act doesn’t apply to the following people:

• students doing an internship (stage);
  
• independent contractors, meaning people who run their own business;
  
• sitters who take care of a child, a sick person, a disabled person or an elderly person on an occasional basis and in the person’s home. A teenager who babysits on Saturday evenings while the parents are out would fall into this category;
  
• people working in federally-regulated businesses enterprises. This includes employees of the federal government, banks (but not credit unions/caisses populaires), radio or television stations, interprovincial transportation businesses, ports, telecommunication companies, etc. These people are covered by labour standards found in the Canada Labour Code, which is a federal law.

Also, the Act respecting labour standards provides that the following people are under a specific legal framework, which means that only certain parts of the Act apply to them:

• Managers have a right to the following benefits of the Act: the right to be absent for family or parental reasons, maternity and parental leave, protection against psychological harassment and protection from forced retirement.
  
• Construction workers' working conditions are covered by a specific law. They are still protected by the Act respecting labour standards in cases of psychological harassment, family leave and forced retirement.
  
• Agricultural workers are entitled to minimum wage, annual vacation and protection against psychological harassment under the Act.
  
• Live-in caregivers("domestic workers") who live at their employer’s home have a right to the general minimum wage, the regular workweek and protection against psychological harassment.

For more information on the application of the Act respecting labour standards, consult the Infosheet entitled Labour standards in Quebec.

It is a day which has a special status with respect to your work hours and pay.

If you work on a holiday, your employer must pay you not only your regular salary, but also an indemnity or one paid day off (which you can take up to three weeks before or after the holiday).

• January 1st (New Year’s Day);
  
• Good Friday or Easter Monday (employer’s choice);
  
• the Monday before May 25;
  
• June 24th, or 25th if the 24th is a Sunday (Quebec's national holiday);
  
• July 1st, or 2nd if the 1st is a Sunday;
  
• the first Monday in September (Labour Day);
  
• the second Monday of October (Thanksgiving);
  
• December 25 (Christmas).

To be able to have the holidays listed in the Act respecting labour standards, you have to first be covered by the law. To find out if this is the case, we invite you to read the first question of this Infosheet or to consult our Infosheet entitled Labour laws.

Since 2003, the other criteria have changed. Only one condition remains: you must not be absent from work, without the permission of the employer or for a valid reason, on the business day before or following the holiday (the business day depends on the employee’s schedule and not on the hours of the enterprise).

For example, Meng works three days per week as a lab assistant: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. He worked his three days this week. He therefore should be paid for the Monday before May 25th, as he didn't have to be at work on Friday according to his normal schedule.

Finally, the provisions related to holidays don’t apply to workers who are covered by a collective agreement that provides for at least seven paid holidays, plus the 24th of June. Workers who are at the same establishement and benefit from the same holidays are also not eligible, even if they are covered by the collective agreement.

For example, Rosa is a receptionist at a security company where the employees are unionized. While she isn't covered by the collective agreement, she still has the same rights concerning holidays as her unionized colleagues: the first Monday of September, the second Monday of October, the two days off at Easter, the 24th of June and the 1st of July, plus a full week off at Christmas. Because she gets 7 paid holidays in addition to the 24th of June, she can't claim any right to the other holidays listed in the Act respecting labour standards.

If you have to work on a holiday, your employer has to pay you a compensatory indemnity or offer you one paid day off in compensation, which must be taken within 3 weeks before or after the holiday.

The indemnity that the employer must pay to the worker for a statutory holiday is equal to 1/20 of the wages earned during the four complete workweeks leading up to the week of the holiday, not counting overtime. (1/60 of the wages earned during the 12 last weeks if you are a worker who receives tips, still not counting overtime hours).

For most people, this just means a day's worth of pay!

If the worker is on annual holiday at the time of the statutory holiday, the employer has to pay the compensatory indemnity or give the worker the one-day paid holiday to compensate, at a date agreed between them.

Yes. All employees have the right to this holiday (or an indemnity), whether they are covered by the Act respecting labour standards or not. Also, when June 24 falls on a Sunday, the holiday is pushed to June 25 (except for employees who typically work on Sundays).

Furthermore, if an employee has to work on June 24 and his employer offers him a replacement holiday to compensate, that replacement holiday must be taken the working day before or after June 24 (and not up to three weeks before or after, as is the case for other holidays).

If the employer doesn’t offer a replacement holiday, he must pay the employee an indemnity. This indemnity is equal to 1/20 of the wages earned during the 4 complete weeks of pay prior to the week of the 24. Commission must be included by the employer in this calculation, but not overtime.