What are Employers obligations to employees on Election Day?

Election Day is on Monday, October 19, 2015.  This is a Federal Election

By law, everyone who is eligible to vote must have three consecutive hours to cast their vote on Election Day. If your employee’s hours of work do not allow for three consecutive hours to vote, you as an employer must give them time off.

For example, if you live in a riding where voting hours are 9:30am to 9:30pm and you have employees that usually work from 11:00 am to 7:00pm, this will not allow for the three consecutive hours for voting required. You could allow your employee to arrive late (at 12:30pm) or leave early (at 6:30pm) or give three hours off at some point during the work day to go and vote and come back to work.

You as the employer have the right to decide when the time off will be given.

This rule may not apply for the transportation industry. The obligation to provide the three consecutive hours off to vote does not apply if these four conditions are met:

1. The employer is a company that transports goods or passengers by land, air or water
2. The employee is employed outside of his or her polling station
3. The employee is employed in the operation of a means of transportation and
4. The time off cannot be allowed without interfering with the transportation service

Also, employers cannot impose a penalty or deduct pay from an employee who is taking time off to vote if required by the Canada Elections Act. An employee must be paid what he or she would have earned during the time allowed off for voting.

It is an offence for employers to fail to provide time off for voting if required under the Canada Elections Act. It is also an offence for an employer to reduce an employee’s pay where the employee has been provided time off to vote in accordance to the Act. The maximum penalty for violating these prohibitions is a fine of up to $2,000, three months imprisonment, or both.

For further information, please go to Elections Canada’s Website at the link below.

http://www.elections.ca/