My employer has decided to schedule me for 8 hours on Good Friday. I was a little surprised to see this (as I didn't think I was obliged to work on public holidays) and already had some Easter plans with my family and church.

My employer does not give premium pay (time-and-a-half) but instead a "substitute holiday" with public holiday pay (all regular wages earned, plus all of the vacation pay payable, in the four weeks before the work week with the public holiday, divided by 20.)

According to the Employment Standards Act of Ontario, unless I have agreed in writing to do so (which I have not), I am entitled to Good Friday off with public holiday pay.

So why am I being scheduled to work? Should I talk to my boss about this? I really don't want to work but am afraid that if I talk to him about this he will make things tough for me by giving me bad hours and such.

What should I do?

[ 07 April 2004: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, it's only full-time employees who are entitled to stat holiday pay, if I'm not mistaken, although it's been a while since I've looked that up.

I don't think you can be made to work on that day. However, I am not sure that you're entitled to pay since you're likely part-time staff (am I right? I'm just assuming that because you're still in high school).

Unfortunately, because of the Mike Harris government, labour laws have been gutted in this province, so I'm not sure what your rights are in this case. If I were you, I'd tell the employer that you don't want to work on a holiday, and you've made plans with your family already. It's true that he might retaliate with shitty hours.

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Originally posted by Michelle:
He's scheduling you to work because he figures you're a kid who won't fight back.

Furthermore, if I'm not mistaken, it's only full-time employees who are entitled to stat holiday pay, if I'm not mistaken, although it's been a while since I've looked that up.

I don't think you can be made to work on that day. However, I am not sure that you're entitled to pay since you're likely part-time staff (am I right? I'm just assuming that because you're still in high school).

Unfortunately, because of the Mike Harris government, labour laws have been gutted in this province, so I'm not sure what your rights are in this case. If I were you, I'd tell the employer that you don't want to work on a holiday, and you've made plans with your family already. It's true that he might retaliate with shitty hours.

(Not to be a jerk, Shane, but this is the kind of stuff the NDP fights for - worker's rights. Which people like Mike Harris and the Regressive Conservatives like to erode. They don't give a shit about people like you - they like your boss much, much better.)

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I am a part time employee (in the restaurant industry), and as far as I am aware, the ESA gives me the right to refuse to work on a public holiday.

I am entitled to holiday pay, it's just I have plans with my family and it's a holiday.

I say stick to your guns and tell your employer, nicely, that you actually have the right to that day off, but you're willing to work 3 hours, but not more. You are doing him a favour by even working the 3 hours, so don't feel shy about asserting your rights.

It's understandable that you're worried that there might be negative reprecussions for you later on (bad hours etc...), but there's also a good chance that your employer knows he can't force you to work but is just hoping you can, and won't be upset if you can't. Any normal person would not punish you for wanting to be with your family at Easter.

I think Sara Mayo's suggestion to contact the Employment Standards branch of the Ontario Ministry of Labour is a good one. (Note this is different from the Ontario Labour Relations Board, commonly called the "Labour Board," where many non-union employees think they have to go to, but in fact only deals with unionized workers. Employment Standards enforces the basic set of laws and minimum standards that cover non-union employees.)

Here's what employment standards has to say about Good Friday.

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Qualified employees are entitled to take off Good Friday with public holiday pay. They can also agree in writing to work on Good Friday and:

be paid their regular rate for all hours worked on Good Friday plus receive a substitute holiday with public holiday pay; or if the employee and employer agree in writing, be paid public holiday pay plus “premium pay” of one-and-a-half times their regular rate for all hours worked on Good Friday.

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You might want to check and see if you signed anything where you agreed to work Good Friday in exchange for a "substitute holiday." You say you don't remember signing any such thing. What about when you were hired? (Usually that's when employers try to sneak these past you. Not like you'd have much of a choice, anyway. You could not sign, and then not get hired, I suppose.)

I hate to bring it up here because it is going to look like I am throwing it in your face (I'm really not trying to be mean, though): but the Harris Conservatives are the people who changed the law in 2000 in order to allow this sort of thing. This might make you think about whether your strong support for them in the past was really worth it.

I think it is particularly ironic, and offensive, since many of the PCs supporters are religious people, and many of these statutory holidays are religious holidays. Previously there was no such provision to "contract out" of the law. Although some employers could require people to work, they had to pay those people double time and a half. This is a stronger disincentive to employers scheduling workers on holidays unnecessarily, since it has a more real and measurable cost to them. Also, more employees had a "right to refuse" work scheduled on those days.

For that matter, if you were getting paid 2 1/2 times your regular wage for the day, i.e. $17.50 an hour instead of $7.00 an hour, and didn't have strong religious objections, you might well be willing to work. In your case, that's $140 for an eight hour shift, which is about the same as you could normally expect to earn for a 20 hour week. That might be more valuable to you than a "substitute day off" at some point in the future, which has none of the same significance as Easter and you're not likely to be spending with your family anyway.

Here's a link to the Ontario Federation of Labor's critique of the 2000 ESA changes (PDF format):

OFL Guide to the Proposed ESA Changes (October, 2000).

The unions and the NDP were very upset about these changes, and tried to make some noise about it, but the Tories rammed them through very quickly and I don't think a lot of the public really understood what was going on at the time. I guess people like you are finding out now, unfortunately.

Back to the main topic, even if you haven't signed anything, there are a couple of other issues you should be aware of. Here is one, from the Ministry of Labour site again:

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ENTITLEMENTS FOR NON-QUALIFIED EMPLOYEES
Generally, employees who don’t qualify for public holiday entitlements must work on Good Friday if asked by their employer. Most non-qualified employees are entitled to be paid one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay for each hour worked on Good Friday. There is no substitute day off.***
Some employees are not eligible for Good Friday entitlements because public holiday provisions under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 do not apply to certain jobs. These employees include:

seasonal workers (employees who work for an employer no more than 16 weeks in a calendar year) in a hotel, motel, tourist resort, restaurant or tavern who are provided with room and board;

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So by this rule, you wouldn't be covered at all.

The same site also says the following:

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Retail Employees
Most employees who work in retail businesses – businesses that sell goods or services to the public--have the right to refuse to work on Good Friday even if they don’t qualify for public holiday entitlements.

Retail employees who have agreed to work on Good Friday may still refuse the assignment if they give their employer 48 hours advance notice before the first hour of work on Good Friday.

However, these rules for retail employees do not apply to those who work for businesses that primarily:

sell prepared meals (restaurants, cafeterias, cafés, etc.);
rent living accommodations (hotels, tourist resorts, camps, inns, etc.);
provide educational, recreational or amusement services to the public (museums, art galleries, sports stadiums, etc.); or
sell goods and services that are incidental to the businesses described above and are located on the same premises (museum gift shops, souvenir shops in sports stadiums, etc.).

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Since you say you work in a restaurant, you may have some problems getting the time off, depending on what exactly your status there is.

Another good website to check out is WorkRights.ca, put out by the Canadian Labour Congress. WorkRights includes a searchable database of employment and labor law questions and answers, as well as a Discussion Forum where you can post questions like yours.

I wish you the best of luck with this. I am also going to change the title of this thread slightly, to reflect the subject matter better.

[ 08 April 2004: Message edited by: robbie_dee ]

However this incident might also give you some insight into why so many of us "lefties" feel the way we do about having strong labour laws and strong enforcement mechanisms.

If you told him that you have religious beliefs about good friday, and yet were forced to work, you would have a complaint under the Human Rights Code.

That can be advantageous because the Human Rights Commission, (after many attempts to get agreement through negotiation) will provide you with a lawyer to prosecute the employer.

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Originally posted by Lard tunderin' jeesus:
So, Shane? How'd it go?

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I nicely asked my boss if I would be able to work just 3 hours instead of the 8 I was scheduled and he said he would do what he could for me.

The restaurant was practically dead the whole day so I was aloud to leave after 3.5 hours.

Everything worked out fine, and I was able to go to Church with my family.