Can an employer assign vacation time to you?

Endomatic

Hello H/A, I have a question.

Can an employer tell you WHEN to take vacation?

I have 2 weeks available to me, and my regional manager has said that I have to decide when I want my vacation this year by the end of February or he will assign what days I am allowed to have, and will not be able to change them under any circumstance.

It's February, I don't fucking know when I want to take my vacation days!
Also, it's not that long after Christmas, I don't know what my finances are going to be like, and on top of that, I work commission so there's REALLY no way to know for sure!

I live in Alberta, Canada.

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer on this.

I don't mind being forced to take the days off, but I really don't think the guy should be able to tell me when I have to go during the year. The whole reason he's doing this is because it will be easier for him to manage in the future. It's not a company wide policy and there is absolutely no precedence for this action in the company history EVER.

Pheezer

It's a complex scenario.

Vacation days depend on if you're salaried and on a contract or hourly. I'm on a contract so mine refresh in July. If I don't use them up by July, I lose them. My boss could be nice and let me pick when to use them at that point, or be a dick and tell me which days I get paid off, or be an even bigger dick and throw them away and say tough luck.

If I were hourly my company would just pay them out, averaged at 4% per hour, on each bi-weekly paycheque and any time I took off would be unpaid.

It depends on your employment contract and the rules that govern such contracts in AB.

Odds are, I'd bet your boss could probably get away with that through one loophole or another.

fightinfilipino

Endomatic wrote: »

Hello H/A, I have a question.

Can an employer tell you WHEN to take vacation?

I have 2 weeks available to me, and my regional manager has said that I have to decide when I want my vacation this year by the end of February or he will assign what days I am allowed to have, and will not be able to change them under any circumstance.

It's February, I don't fucking know when I want to take my vacation days!
Also, it's not that long after Christmas, I don't know what my finances are going to be like, and on top of that, I work commission so there's REALLY no way to know for sure!

I live in Alberta, Canada.

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer on this.

I don't mind being forced to take the days off, but I really don't think the guy should be able to tell me when I have to go during the year. The whole reason he's doing this is because it will be easier for him to manage in the future. It's not a company wide policy and there is absolutely no precedence for this action in the company history EVER.

according to this page, Canadian employers are required to provide two weeks vacation, but unless you have a contract with your employer specifically stating you can choose when that vacation time occurs or if you are in a union which can bargain such, the employer can dictate when that vacation time occurs.

the official Canadian regs on employment don't specify anything about choice of when vacation time occurs, so my guess is the Canadian legislature meant to leave that up to the employer and employee.

Kakodaimonos

What does your HR handbook say about vacation time and how much notice you need to give before you take it?

Gilbert0

Talk to HR defiantly but you've said that there is no company policy. There should be rules defined on vacation if it's a company of any decent size (ie big enough to HAVE an HR department). Try talking to him like you did here. He's a person too and (hopefully) willing to cooperate. If not, then at least give him time frames, a week in Aug or July, Christmas, etc

And fight's link basically says the employer gets to choose which I think is correct. But it's a newspaper article written in 2007 so it might have changed (but I doubt).

And don't feel too bad, I had to book my vacation by Jan 31 for the year.

Endomatic

Thanks for the posts.

I'd be willing to wager he would know for sure if he can get away with it before he tried it. He's pretty careful about those kinds of things.

It's not a huge deal I guess. I'll just try to make the most of it.

darkmayo

Depends on your employer, I know with my employer (in Calgary) my vacation days roll over to the next year if I dont take them, but I think there is a limit and we encourage people to take vacation, my boss for example has about 30 days vacation he really needs to use.

Decius

It also depends whether your company falls under provincial or federal jurisdiction for the labour code. Most companies are under the provincial labour code, but a few exceptions (Telus, which I used to work for) were under the federal labour code.

Talk to your HR department first, then maybe contact the Employment Standards of Alberta office.

Call the province-wide toll-free number by dialing 1-877-427-3731. In Edmonton and surrounding areas dial 780-427-3731. From a cell phone, call #310 on Telus and Bell or *310 on Rogers.

They also have a whole bunch of facts sheets, including one on vacation.

Always know your rights, especially in this province.

Iceman.USAF

In general, yes. However as others have stated, ask your HR folks.

Some perspective about this, though. In one of my sections we had (re: one quit) two women who HATED each other. So much so that they'd work on opposite sides of the office just to avoid hearing each other breathing.

Last year, Woman 1 projected (In January) her leave for the year, to include spring and Christmas breaks. Woman 2 decided to take leave in November for the same time as Woman 1's Christmas break. Due to mission requirements, they can't BOTH be out. Therefore, the person who predicted earlier (Woman 1) got their leave approve while Woman 2 was denied.

She was furious, of course, but this is why we have people submit their project vacations way ahead of time.

GothicLargo

Iceman.USAF wrote: »

In general, yes. However as others have stated, ask your HR folks.

Some perspective about this, though. In one of my sections we had (re: one quit) two women who HATED each other. So much so that they'd work on opposite sides of the office just to avoid hearing each other breathing.

Last year, Woman 1 projected (In January) her leave for the year, to include spring and Christmas breaks. Woman 2 decided to take leave in November for the same time as Woman 1's Christmas break. Due to mission requirements, they can't BOTH be out. Therefore, the person who predicted earlier (Woman 1) got their leave approve while Woman 2 was denied.

She was furious, of course, but this is why we have people submit their project vacations way ahead of time.

This scenario is very common. I don't think there's an office on the planet where this exact situation HASN'T happened, and it's always resolved the same way... first come, first served.

Of course it's easier to just get along with your team in the first place.

Endomatic

First come first serve is completely understandable, but absolutely everyone in the region knows he is doing this to flex his company muscle or whatever the term might be.

The area I work in has 5 employees including myself to schedule vacation time around. That's about 12 weeks of vacation (3 people have 2 weeks, others have 3).

Thanks for the link Decius, this certainly isn't the first employment issue I've had in Alberta. Great fucking province to live in...

Jaded

Come to Manitoba! We have Murderpeg...

Endomatic

Never! I will only go back west!

I can't believe I left B.C for this shit!

Thanks everyone for the advice, I will talk to H.R, and look up some of the laws, and barring that, will just do my best to select my vacation.
Can probably lock this unless there is anything further anyone can suggest.

El Mucho

Jaded wrote: »

Come to Manitoba! We have Murderpeg...

Pfft, only in the Northend...And maybe downtown.

Pheezer

El Mucho wrote: »

Jaded wrote: »

Come to Manitoba! We have Murderpeg...

Pfft, only in the Northend...And maybe downtown.

Man how many of you are from MB? Do I need to organize MB PAX?

It is so weird to see other 'peggers on here. Also our labour laws probably wouldn't actually prevent this scenario at all. Best case is that if you didn't book your vacation in time they'd refuse to give you days off and pay it out averaged across the year on your paycheques.

Jaded

HELL YES TO MB PAX!