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.

Many workers are not covered or are only covered in part by the Act. To find out if the Act respecting labour standards applies to you, consult our Infosheet Labor Standards in Quebec.

A statutory general holiday is a special day on which you don’t work but get paid anyways!

If you work on a statutory general holiday, your employer must not only pay you your regular salary, but also a compensation or one paid day off (which you can take up to 3 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 (National Patriots’ Day);
  
• July 1st, or 2nd if the 1st is a Sunday (Canada Day);
  
• the 1st Monday in September (Labour Day);
  
• the 2nd Monday of October (Thanksgiving);
  
• December 25th (Christmas).

In addition, the National Holiday Act makes June 24th (Saint-Jean-Baptiste) a statutory holiday. This holiday is pushed forward to the 25th, if the 24th falls on a Sunday.

To be able to have the holidays listed in the Act respecting labour standards, you have to be an employee covered by this law. See the first question of this Infosheet.

You must not be absent from work without your employer’s permission or without a valid reason on the business day before or following the holiday. The business day in question depends on your schedule and not on the hours of the business.

For example, Meng works 3 days per week as a lab assistant: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. He worked his 3 days this week. The coming Monday is the one before May 25th. He should be paid for that holiday even if he wasn’t at work on Friday. According to Meng’s schedule, he isn’t supposed to be at work on Fridays. Although he didn’t show up on Friday, he isn’t considered absent from his work on the business day before that holiday.

Finally, the provisions relating to holidays don’t apply to workers who are covered by a collective agreement that provides for:

• at least 7 paid holidays; and
  
• the holiday of June 24th.

Non-unionized workers at the same establishment who benefit from the same holidays (7 days and the 24th) as their unionized co-workers are also not eligible.

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 1st Monday of September, the 2nd Monday of October, 2 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 compensation or offer you one paid day off, which must be taken within 3 weeks before or after the holiday.

The compensation that the employer must pay to the worker for a statutory holiday is equal to 1/20 of the wages earned during the 4 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 is paid in full or in part by commission).

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 him the compensation or give him the one-day paid holiday at a date agreed between them.

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

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 statutory holidays).

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