Canadians being stolen of vacation time
Posted by Tyler Kinch on July 31st, 2007
A new report says Canada is not keeping up with many of its global neighbours when it comes to the amount of vacation time provided to its workers.
The report by the Canadian Labour Congress compares vacation rates among member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as among the provinces.
The report finds that Canadian workers get less paid vacation time than almost all the other developed countries. It also calls for the federal and provincial governments to move to a new national legal minimum of 10 paid statutory holidays and three weeks paid vacation after one year of service.
“Considering that all school-age children are on vacation for two months in the summer, the legal vacation regime in Canada cannot be said to be family-friendly,” said the report from the pro-union group.
According to the comparison of statutory annual leave minimums among member countries, Canada is near the bottom of the list. It is behind Australia, Austria, Belgium, France and Denmark, to name just a few of the countries that offer more paid time off to their workers — in some cases more than double the Canadian average.