Most Ontario residents have something to look forward to in February besides the usual cold snap this year. The third Monday of the month—February 18th—is the first official Family Day and the ninth provincial statutory holiday for Ontarians.
According to a survey of Ontario employers by Watson Wyatt, employers are embracing the new holiday with 79% of respondents saying they will add Family Day as a new holiday under their holiday/vacation policies for Ontario employees. Watson Wyatt surveyed 33 organizations with more than 140,000 Ontario employees to gauge employer’s response to the holiday.
Alberta and Saskatchewan already have a Family Day holiday on the third Monday of February. Alberta was the first Canadian province to have a statutory holiday in February. The first Family Day was celebrated in Alberta in 1990. Saskatchewan’s first family day was last year. Manitoba will also have a February holiday but it will be named in honour of the Métis leader Louis Riel, who led the Red River and North-West rebellions in a fight to maintain aboriginal rights.
However, not all working Ontarians will receive the Family Day holiday next month. Eleven percent of respondents say they will not change their holiday/vacation policies as they already provide an unofficial Family Day holiday.
The inconsistency is in Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). The ESA sets minimum standards for matters such as paid holidays, but “subsection 5(2) of the legislation allows employers to contract out of some of those minimum standards if they have a collective agreement, employment contract or policy that provides benefits in excess of the statutory minimums,” says Watson Wyatt.
For example, many employers provide “floating” or personal days off in addition to statutory holidays. Those who provide paid holidays in addition to the nine paid holidays required by the ESA may be able to reduce the number of floating or personal days to offset Family Day.
Those employers that plan to reduce floater days to compensate for the new holiday “should consider the impact of their decision on employee morale,” says Watson Wyatt and whatever decision an organization reaches ensure it is communicated clearly to the employees.
For more on Family Day, click here.
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