Yesterday was a summer day off for many employees. Heritage Day is a civic holiday in Alberta, which means it may or may not be recognized by employers, depending on a number of factors. The August long weekend used to be a statutory holiday until 1990, when the Family Day holiday came into effect. Then the Heritage Day holiday became a civic holiday (optional). I decided to look up some information on yesterday’s holiday and see what this one really means, where it came from, and who actually qualifies for holiday pay.
Turns out, there was not a lot of stuff available to research. There were, however, many words describing the holiday as a day of awareness about our culture, and there are highlighted foods, musicians, parties, and events to celebrate our heritage. But finding anything specific was like pulling teeth. I did see written in several places that Heritage Day is not an official holiday. Well, try to tell banks, government, businesses, and employees that! Not an official holiday for whom? We do need the extra paid days off during the summer months, but civic holidays are unpaid forced holidays for many, or regular work days for some.
Employees who are not paid to take the day off needed to plan for it. Personally, I don’t think we should have any civic holidays, just statutory holidays with rules and regulations, that are easy to find and easy to follow!
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