Know Your Contract
Holidays
What holidays am I entitled to? How much to I get paid for holidays? Can I be forced to work on a holiday?
We have received many calls regarding the scheduling and holiday pay provisions contained in the contract. Below is the article of the contract regarding holidays; the sections that address the questions we have been asked most often are highlights.
WHAT THE CONTRACT SAYS
ARTICLE IX: HOLIDAYS
(A) Holidays shall be defined as including regular and personal holidays. All employees covered by this Agreement shall receive pay for the following regular holidays: New Year's Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Pay for these regular holidays shall be based on the average earnings of each employee for the preceding calendar year. In addition to the seven (7) regular holidays, each employee covered by this Agreement shall receive four (4) personal holidays in each contract year (April 1 through March 31). Such holidays are to be selected by the employee with a minimum of ten (10) days notice. The Employer is not required to grant personal holidays during the vacation black-out periods designated in Article VIII, Section G of this Agreement. Pay for the personal holidays shall be calculated in the same manner as sick pay. Unused personal holidays shall be paid to the employees at the end of such contract year.
Personal holidays may be used to observe religious holidays or Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday, should the employee so desire. The employer shall have the right to grant personal holidays in accordance with seniority and its business needs. No restriction shall be placed on employees who observe obligatory religious holidays. It is further agreed that the Employer is not required to grant more than two (2) personal holidays at any one time.
(B) All employees shall receive pay for these holidays without any make-up.
(C) All employees shall receive pay at average for all other holidays upon which the stores are closed.
(D) To be eligible for holiday pay, an employee (i) must be employed thirty (30) days or more prior to the holiday, and (ii) must work the scheduled day before and the scheduled day after the holiday, unless satisfactory proof of illness or other good cause is provided. For personal holidays only, an employee must be employed for ninety (90) calendar days to be eligible. The four (4) personal days shall be pro-rated in an employee's first contract year of employment, based on an accrual of one (1) day per three (3) months of employment, measured from the first day of employment.
(E) In the event a holiday falls during a vacation period, the employee shall receive an extra day's pay, or an extra day added to the vacation period, at the employee's option.
(F) The Employer shall have the option to open its stores on the aforementioned holidays specified in Section (A). If the store of the Employer shall be opened for business on any of the aforesaid holidays, each employee working on such holiday shall receive time and a half for working said holiday, in addition to the regular holiday pay. All employees shall be paid for a full eight-hour (8) day on any of the aforesaid holidays, even though the stores of the Employer may not be open for the full eight (8) hours. It is understood that work on any of these holidays by an employee shall be purely on a voluntary basis. The Employer may establish its maximum staffing requirements for any holiday. The volunteers offered the opportunity to work on any holiday shall be selected in seniority order on a rotating, equitable basis.
(G) The current agreement regarding Easter Sunday will continue; i.e., so long as the company closes on Easter Sunday, post-1985 employees will be paid for the day unless their work schedule does not include Sunday scheduling.
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