Alberta’s Bill 2, An Act to Make Alberta Open for Business, passed in July and comes into effect Sept. 1, 2019.

Bill 2 made several changes to the province’s labour and unemployment laws, however, this post will focus on the changes impacting general holiday pay and overtime banking under the Employment Standards Code. To understand what this could mean for your organization, read on.

Additionally and separate from Bill 2, for the benefit of Alberta employers, we note Alberta’s new minimum wage category. It came into effect on June 26, 2019 (as a regulatory amendment) and permits payment of a lower minimum wage rate for students under 18 ($13/hour instead of $15/hour).

Bill 2: Why are the requirements for holiday pay and overtime agreements changing (again)?

Alberta's recent change in government helps to explain these changes. You may recall that in 2017, Alberta’s then-NDP government passed Bill 17, which made changes to a number of minimum employment standards. Bill 2, introduced by the United Conservative Party in late May 2019, reverses some of those changes:  

Note: The holiday row in the above chart illustrates what has changed, but does not list the other holiday eligibility criteria (the before and after test* and the refusal to work qualifier**). Those criteria remain valid.

*The before and after test assesses whether the employee works the last scheduled day before the holiday and the first scheduled day after the holiday.

**If an employee refuses to work on a holiday when scheduled they are not eligible to receive average daily pay.

What are the holiday pay requirements for worked/unworked time?

Starting with the Sept. 2, 2019 holiday:

Holiday unworked: Alberta employees who do not work on a holiday and are otherwise eligible to receive holiday pay (because they pass the before and after test and did not refuse to work a holiday when scheduled) will only be entitled to receive the average daily wage if:

Eligibility #1: They have worked for you for 30 days or more in the 12 months before a holiday and

Eligibility #2: The holiday falls on a day that they’ve worked at least five of in the last nine weeks

Holiday worked: Alberta employees who work on a holiday and are otherwise eligible to receive holiday pay (because they pass the before and after test and did not refuse to work a holiday when scheduled) will be entitled to different holiday pay depending on their situation:

The requirements for worked/unworked time, above, were developed with reference to Alberta’s “General Holiday Pay Flow Chart,” which reflected pre-2018 eligibility. More information on Bill 2 changes can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact Alberta Employment Standards directly for clarification.  You can also set up an alert for updates to their site.

What does this mean for employers?

With these reforms, employers are in a unique position to determine how they move forward.  Employers who:

• choose to be more generous than the minimum standards do not need to make changes.
• need to (or choose to) adhere to minimum standards can make changes that may reduce the number of employees who are eligible for holiday pay, the amount of overtime paid to employees and the labour spend associated with student employees under 18.

These changes happened quickly, but businesses can still confirm the impact and relevance of these changes in the context of their operations, and work with their legal advisors to understand their obligations and how best to respond.  

Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon or construed as legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. You should review with your legal advisors how the laws identified in this post may apply to your specific situation.