You spoke up – the government listened. Holiday pay is being switched back to normal. But for how long?
As we told you, on January 1, 2018, holiday pay was increased for every employee in Ontario. Basicially, every employee receives one full day of pay for each of the nine public holidays in Ontario.
But quietly on Monday (after 5:00pm, on the close of the legislature and one hour before the first election debate of the year), the Ontario government announced that the rules on holiday pay will, on Canada Day, be reverted back to the old calculation from before January 1, 2018 to allow for a further review of holiday pay rules.
So, on July 1, 2018 (a public holiday) the holiday pay calculation will go back to the following:
Public holiday pay = total amount of regular wages earned and vacation pay payable in the 4 work weeks before the work week in which the public holiday occurred, divided by 20.
This is a swift decision by the government, who said in an accompanying press release, that public holiday rules were “the source of the most complaints under the ESA and needed to be simplified.” We know that’s an understatement, and we’ve been telling dentists for months to protect themselves and their businesses with proper contracts and manuals that address all of the changes from the new law.
The government has stated they will conduct a full review of the public holiday system in Ontario this year, with an eye to further update the holiday pay rules by the year 2020.
So, there is a possibility that the holiday pay rules will change again sometime in the next 2 years. But for now, alert your payroll people and let them know of this important change for July 1.
If you are interested, submissions regarding the Public Holiday Pay Review can be sent to this government email address: exemptions.review@ontario.ca.
