Vacation time
Employees are entitled to take vacation, and to be paid for their vacation. They accrue vacation in the following ways, under Section 57 of the Employment Standards Act:
- After 12 consecutive months of employment, the employee is entitled to take at least two weeks of vacation;
- After five consecutive years of employment, the employee is entitled to take at least three weeks of vacation.
The employer is responsible to ensure their employee takes their annual vacation in the 12 months after the year in which they earn it. In practice, this means that if an employee starts work on January 1, 2020, they will be entitled to take two weeks of vacation in 2021, and the employer must ensure that they take their vacation by December 31, 2021.
Once an employee has earned vacation, they must be allowed to take in periods of one or more weeks.
Vacation pay
Aside from being given time to take a vacation, the employee must be paid for their vacation. According to Section 58 of the Act, vacation pay must be paid out within seven days prior to the scheduled vacation, or else as a percentage of wages and paid in each pay period if the employee has agreed to this in writing.
Under Section 58, employees are entitled to vacation pay as follows:
- After five calendar days of employment, the employee is entitled to vacation pay at 4% of their total wage;
- After five consecutive years of employment, the employee is entitled to vacation pay at 6% of their total wage.
“Total wage” includes the salary or hourly rate, commissions, overtime, bonuses, and all other elements of pay that the employee receives.
A dismissed employee is entitled to be paid all accrued vacation within 48 hours of termination, as set out in Section 18 of the Act.
Establishing a date for determining vacation pay
It can be onerous to keep track of every employee’s start date for purposes of calculating their vacation entitlements. Section 60 of the Act permits the employer to use a common date for all employees, so long as this does not result in a reduction of any employee’s rights.
Remedies
An employee who has not been paid their statutory vacation pay, or allowed to take vacation time, may make a complaint to the Director of Employment Standards. If the Director finds there has been a breach of the annual vacation and vacation pay rules, it may issue fines for each specific breach and increased fines for repeated breaches.
The information provided on this page is a general overview of the annual vacation and vacation pay rules set out in the BC Employment Standards Act. It should not be taken as legal advice. For answers to specific questions about your workplace obligations, contact EmployRight and speak with one of our employment lawyers.