Gains for vacation, special and other leaves

Your bargaining committee negotiated for a suite of improvements to work leaves in the 2022-2025 Facilities collective agreement.

Landmark changes to vacation, compassionate, special leave, sexual and domestic violence leave and other leaves will expand options for members needing time away from work.

Here’s the list of improved leave provisions that are part of the new collective agreement:

Vacation

• Scheduling Full-time Employees - Regular full-time employees wanting more flexibility with vacation scheduling can hold back up to 37.5 hours in annual vacation planning, provided they submit their request by August 1.
• Scheduling Part-time Employees - Regular part-time employees can also hold back hours in annual vacation planning on a proportional basis by submitting their request by August 1.
• Entitlement - Workers with 30 years continuous service gain an additional day off to bring their total to 46 days effective July 1, 2023.

Compassionate/Bereavement Leave

• Compassionate Leave Name Change - Compassionate leave has been renamed bereavement leave.

• Leave Expansion - To make bereavement leave more inclusive, the definition of family has been expanded so that leave now extends to siblings-in-law, parent’s siblings and their spouses, and any person who lives with an employee as a member of their family.

Other Leaves

• New Special Leave Working Group - A joint union-employer working group will develop a common set of principles to assist the parties with granting special leave for serious household or domestic emergencies, including illness or injury to another family member, to minimize existing confusion over the application of this leave.
• Clarifying and Expanding Sexual and Domestic Violence Leave - Improvements to this leave clarify how all members who experience sexual or domestic violence may take this leave for a minimum of five paid days. In addition to this five-day minimum, a member may now take an additional five days, up from three days, for a total of ten paid days of leave time.
• Benefit Extension During Unpaid Leave - For the first 20 days of unpaid Employment Standards Act regulated leaves, members will now receive full benefits. Beyond the 20 days, accrual will continue for seniority and service for annual vacation and entitlement, increment progression, severance and pension. The employer will also maintain health and welfare benefit coverage for employees on Employment Standard Agreement leaves, except for workers on reservists’ leave.

• Sick Leave Expansion for Part-time Workers - Part-time and casual employees will have access to five sick days as outlined under the Employment Standards Act.

This bulletin is part of a series of updates about the renewed Facilities collective agreement. Watch this space for future updates. If you have questions about any of these provisions, please contact your shop steward.