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DYK: General Holiday Pay and Banked Overtime Rules Changed?

DYK: General Holiday Pay and Banked Overtime Rules Changed?

Since 2018, your Chamber has been asking the provincial Government to make changes to how averaging agreements and the treatment of statutory holidays were handled. We were pleased that this past summer Bill 2 received Royal Assent, implementing the changes we were looking for. What does this mean for you as an employer:

  • The holiday pay qualifying period is back to 30 work days in the last 12 months before a general holiday
  • Regular / irregular workday distinctions were brought back for holiday pay:
    • If a holiday falls on a day that is normally a workday for the employee and they worked on the holiday, they are still entitled to the same amount of general holiday pay as before. There are two options for paying employees holiday pay:
      • The employee gets 1.5 times their regular wage for hours worked and average daily wage.
      • The employee gets their regular wage rate for hours worked and average daily wage with one day off work.
    • If a holiday falls on a day that is normally a workday for the employee and the employee did not work on the holiday, they are entitled to their average daily wage.
    • If a holiday falls on a day that is not normally a workday for the employee and they work on the holiday, they are still entitled to 1.5 times their regular wage rate for hours worked.
    • If the holiday falls on a day that is not normally a workday for the employee and the employee did not work on the holiday, they are not entitled to general holiday pay.
  • Employers and employees have the option to once again develop straight-time banked hours arrangements and no longer need Flexible Averaging Agreements (FAA’s), as FAA’s were repealed.

Learn more about:

Ask a Question online: https://www.alberta.ca/contact-employment-standards.aspx

Find a resource and tool kits: https://www.alberta.ca/employment-standards-education-resources.aspx

Sign up for a webinar: https://ers.humanservices.alberta.ca/es-webinars.aspx

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