What if they Held a Holiday and a City Ignored it?
In Ontario, this coming Monday is a “Holiday” for lots of folks, and it is called Family Day. This “Holiday” was implemented a few years back by the McGuinty Provincial Government. A February day off offers a winter break and could become popular.
Today, many banks, schools, and stores are closed, and city services may be limited. The Federal Government in Ottawa does not recognize this “new” holiday as a Statutory Holiday. Most Federal employees will work as usual.
Buses will most likely run on a curtailed schedule. Almost every Federal Government employee is expected to report to work on Monday.. I have also heard that many private companies haven’t officially adopted this day off. Instead, they’ve given employees a floating holiday they can take on Monday or another day.
What does this mean? Ottawa becomes very schizophrenic on Monday: some folks take a long weekend, others have to find alternate child care because their kids have the day off while the parents have to go to work, and still more folks develop a bad case of the “Family Day Grippe”. Productivity will not be high, I guess.
I can’t figure out whether this is the Federal Government thumbing its nose at the Provincial Government, or just a very interesting screw-up. I doubt PSAC will fight for this day off, since Public Servants already get Remembrance Day off, so this odd “UN-Holiday” will continue on in Ottawa. Across the river in Gatineau, folks over there will wonder why all the rich Ontarians are coming across the river to buy their groceries on Monday too (it is not a holiday in Quebec either (I don’t think)).
Is this a Holiday, or not? What does this have to do with Personal Finance? Not much, but it’s an interesting quandary.
Provincial labour law and federal labour law are distinct. If you work for a federally-regulated employer, the federal laws apply. Provincially-regulated = Ontario Employment Standards Act. Also, collective agreements may be in the mix for the feds; provincially, collective agreements must meet or exceed the minimums established in the Employment Standards Act (not so in Alberta, resulting in company unions like CLAC).
Precisely. The Federal employees bargain for their Stat Holidays and since this day wasn’t around at the time of the last contract, it is not available, we shall see in the future.
This is very strange indeed! I had not heard of this before. The Federal Employees must at least get holiday pay or something- isn’t this the law?! I would think that the government is supposed to follow the labour laws…
I always thought that family day is a satutary holiday for everyone. It really sucks if you need to go back to work while everyone else is having a day off. Although this got nothing to do with financial planning, I always wonder why banks got the rememberance day off while I need to go to work. What is the meaning of this?
Glad I work for the OPS and not the Feds! We get the day off. With a compressed work week (33m a day for every 3rd Friday off) I will spend 4 days truly spending time with my family as my sister will visit from Ottawa on Saturday until sometime Sunday. She will spend time with us and her new nephew – but she works for the Feds, so back to work for her Monday.