Yesterday the Ontario government announced that it would undertake a review of the Public Holiday System under Part X of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 ("ESA"). While the review will solicit feedback and input from stakeholders, as an interim measure the government introduced Regulation 375/18 which reinstates the formula for calculating holiday pay that existed prior to the coming into force of the Bill 148 amendments to Part X of the ESA. Note that this Regulation comes into effect on July 1, 2018.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR EMPLOYERS
Unfortunately, the upcoming Victoria Day long weekend will still require employers to calculate holiday pay based on the amended ESA rules. Although employers should be sure to consult Section 24 of the current ESA for the full rules and methods, generally this means:
An employee's public holiday pay for a given public holiday shall be equal to, the total amount of regular wages earned in the pay period immediately preceding the public holiday, divided by the number of days the employee worked in that period.
However, for the Canada Day Weekend and beyond (to December 31, 2019 or until another amendment or Regulation is passed at least), employers are directed by this new Regulation to calculate holiday pay "the old way":
The employee's public holiday pay for a given public holiday shall be equal to the total amount of regular wages earned and vacation pay payable to the employee in the four work weeks before the work week in which the public holiday occurred, divided by 20.
In addition, anyone wishing to provide comments or feedback to the Ministry of Labour on this subject can email them at: exemptions.review@ontario.ca.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.