KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – All large retail stores and most other businesses have to close on July 1, for Canada Day. Canada Day is designated ‘retail closing day.’
For many Nova Scotia workers, Canada Day is a general and paid holiday, a statutory holiday in some provinces. If you are a union member, working under a collective agreement, you get paid for the holiday. However if you work in nearly 70% of businesses and offices in Nova Scotia which are not unionized, here are the rules. You should get paid for the day if you worked 15 of the last 30 calendar days.You also must have worked your last scheduled shift just before the holiday, and your first scheduled shift right after the holiday. If you did not work the day before, or after because you had a sick day or a vacation day, you should still get paid for Canada Day.
If your employer is a bar, gas station, restaurant or tourist operation which is open on July 1, and you work that day, you are entitled to your normal pay for the day, plus time and one half for every hour you do work on July 1.
However if you work on a farm, in real estate, if you sell cars or work on commission, if you work on a fishing boat — you don’t get the holiday with pay.
Adapted from Canada Day – Will you be paid? by Judy Haiven
With a special thanks to our generous donors who make publication of the Nova Scotia Advocate possible.
Subscribe to the Nova Scotia Advocate weekly digest and never miss an article again. It’s free!
The sick or vacation day before refer to paid days l believe.