How much leave do you get in U.S/Canada?

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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If you mean what I think, we have what's called the Family Medical Leave Act. For specified medical and a few other reasons, one can take a job-protected 12 week unpaid leave. One has to work for an employer with at least 50 employees and has to have worked there for at least a year to qualify.
I own a small company with 13 employees, so we don't qualify. I couldn't afford to anyway.

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Little realized fact: The 12 weeks (I thought it was 6) does NOT have to be taken all at one time. It is JUST as valid for you to leave work 2 hours early on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to take your mother/father/son/daughter/wife/brother/sister/steps maybe(?) to the doctor/hospital for treatment.

 

[tdi-rick]

Sprintman, you forgot to tell our cousins on the other side of the Pacific that Govt. workers get six weeks paid annual leave @ 17.5% above their base rate .
Then there's school teachers who get, what, twelve or thirteen weeks...

Then there's idiots like me who are self employed and say

"what's a holiday

"

 

[JohnnyO]

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Originally posted by tdi-rick:
Govt. workers get six weeks paid annual leave @ 17.5% above their base rate.

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So they make more money when they're not working than when they are working?
Everything comes with a cost, those bennies are nice but it's paid for with higher costs and less productivity. That's why half of everything that gets bought in the U.S. is made in China and purchased at Wal-Mart.

 

[sprintman]

Thats Aussie workers who get 6 weeks plus 17.5% leave loading. New Zealand is known as the "Land of the long white cloud" whereas Australia is "The land of the long weekend"

 

[tdi-rick]

the reason that the 17.5% loading on holiday pay came about, is that the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) argued that workers on shift work, who were paid penalty rates for their shifts, were losing out at leave time, so, the loading was added to their leave pay.
Then, the 'normal' working hours workers cried foul, that their 'mates' were being paid more for nothing when on holidays, so everyone ended up with it.

I think this happened during the Whitlam Labor government in the early seventies, when there was a massive social shakeup here, and the Union movement held a great deal of sway in the political process.
I was only a kid of ten when the government was sacked in '75, so someone a touch older may be able to correct me if I'm a little off kilter here.

Rick.

 

[cousincletus]

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Originally posted by sprintman:
Govt legislation mandates the leave/holidays and long service here. There would be a revolution here if you only got a week off in your first 3 yrs working for a company, in fact it sounds almost untrue. There must be something I'm missing about this?

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Sprintman, I wish it was untrue. Sometimes I wonder how I do it. A lot of truck drivers work a harder schedule than I do, so I guess I'm kinda lucky in a way. I do make 60 grand a year and my wife has lotsa fun spending it.

 

[Gary Allan]

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Thats Aussie workers who get 6 weeks plus 17.5%

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At my old job, we got 1.75% of our last years wages or 40 hours pay, which ever was greater for vacation pay. Since our dept worked 24/7 (production was typcially Mon-Fri - Sat and Sun were OT) and we were paid under the same conditions (that Sat & Sun were OT whether or not you worked over 40 hours), This effectively brought most of my dept up to the OT rate for vacation pay. You had 11 holidays that, in most years, effectively turned into 16.5 days of pay if they were actually worked PLUS the days straight holiday pay (1.5x if worked + the straight holiday pay up to 8 hours. Over 8 was @ 2.5x). If you had 12years+ you had 20 VAC days based on an already 55.5 weeks of pay (the 16.5 days paid for holidays +/-)

In years where double holidays (New Years Eve, New Years or Christmas Eve and Christmas) fell on your scheduled days off, they counted as time worked and turned your 7th day into double time.

One floating holiday (which used to be the first day of buck season) and your birthday were also included.

Effectively virtually everyone in the dept got a raise via the escalating vacation pay. Those that were really motivated would break up their vacations into long weekends and still work the actual weekends and receive, all but, 5 days pay at just shy of OT rate and only use 3 days vacation.

But that's not all folks!

Coverage for the vacationing operator was typically covered with by 4 hours on the shift before and after the absent worker. Since all operators had 20 days vac ..you picked up about 20 of these 4 hour coverage events ..naturally at 1.5x ..or about 3 weeks of pay. This was in addition to any project work during shutdowns ..which you couldn't take vacation during (this forced more VAC to compressed into the rest of the year).

Basically, without working all that much, you got about 65 weeks of pay a year.

Gosh I miss that job ..and I REALLY like the work.

 

[Shannow]

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Originally posted by tdi-rick:
Sprintman, you forgot to tell our cousins on the other side of the Pacific that Govt. workers get six weeks paid annual leave @ 17.5% above their base rate .
Then there's school teachers who get, what, twelve or thirteen weeks...

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Rick, which Govt. workers get 6 weeks ?

The operating staff at work get 6 because they are expected to work their poublic holidays, but they're the only people I know.

As to having leave, given where we are now, taking leave is a PITA. Theres no seccession planning, so you come back after a fortnight, and have three weeks work to do in the first week back. And your time off is riddled with phonecalls from managers who need decisions.

Maybe that's why I've got 20 weeks long service saved, and 8 weeks annual leave....It's too much effort when you get back.

Then there's a year worth of sick leave (6 days off sick in 16 years).

Hahaha, they just increased our paternity leave from 1 day unpaid to 3 days unpaid.

 

[sprintman]

min 4 weeks leave plus 10 paid public holidays = 6 weeks. Then public servants have flex time (what a joke) which gives them a heap more.

 

[tdi-rick]

One of my best mates has been in the AFP for nigh on twenty years, and I'm sure he's always had six weeks + public holidays.

If I'm wrong, I apologise to all those public servants I've been unjustly envious of for all those years.

Rick.