Canadians will be voting in a federal election on 2 May 2011.\u00a0\u00a0 Two of the most common\u00a0questions heard, aside from which party do you support are:<\/p>\n
Do I get time off from work to vote? and,<\/p>\n
Do I get paid for taking the time off work?<\/p>\n
The answer to both questions is: \u00ab\u00a0it depends\u00a0\u00bb.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Canada\u00a0Elections Act states that every employee who is an elector is entitled to three consecutive hours during voting hours to cast a vote.\u00a0 This does not necessarily mean time off from work.\u00a0 The\u00a0Act makes it clear that the time that the employer shall allow for voting is at the convenience of the employer.\u00a0 For example, if the polls are opened until 8:30 pm and the employee\u2019s regular shift ends at 4 pm, the employee has 4 \u00bd consecutive hours to cast a vote and would not get time off from work.\u00a0 However, if the regular shift is from 10\u00a0am \u00a0to 6 pm, the employer could allow the employee to come in late or leave early from work to provide 3 consecutive hours.\u00a0 In this exemple,\u00a0the employer would be giving employees three consecutive hours to vote by allowing\u00a0them to leave 30 minutes early, ie 5:30 pm.<\/p>\n
As far as pay is concerned, the\u00a0 Act prohibits an employer from making a deduction from the pay of an employee or to impose a penalty for the time allowed to vote.\u00a0\u00a0 In the first scenario, there is no cost to the employer since the regular shift was completed.\u00a0 In the second example, the employer would have to pay full wages for 8 hours even though employees completed 7.5 hours of work.<\/p>\n
In short, time off from work for voting depends on the employees’ regular shift\u00a0 and\u00a0the hours that polls are opened in your jurisdiction on election day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n