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January 16, 2008
Special Notice to Employers
As you know, the provincial government introduced a new statutory holiday under the Employment Standards Act last fall. Family Day will occur on the third Monday of every February, beginning this year (February 18, 2008).
Throughout November and December, we discussed the possible reporting scenarios with many of our employers as we awaited official changes to the Education Act to incorporate the new statutory holiday. The amendment to the Education Act, proclaimed on December 20, 2007, changes the minimum number of teaching days for the 2007/08 school year to 193 from 194.
There is no impact on your 12-month employee calendars as statutory holidays are currently included as a paid work day.
Determining how you will handle the change
If February 18, 2008, was previously a paid work day on your teaching calendars, we need to understand how you will be handling this day – the calendar is the basis for all benefit entitlements and calculations.
Based on our discussions with employers, there are two common scenarios being considered to incorporate the new statutory holiday for the 2007/08 school year – below is an overview of each one’s impact on pension reporting.
| Same calendar – February 18 is a paid day |
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Daily rates of pay will remain the same. For example, if your teaching calendar was 194 it would remain at 194 (193 work days plus one statutory paid day) and the per diem rate for an annual rate of $50,000 would remain at $257.73. |
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You will report salary and service credit on February 18 (i.e., treat like any other paid working day). |
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You won’t have to recalculate leaves under ESA. |
| Change calendar (i.e., reduce number of work days) |
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Daily rates of pay will be higher since the annual rate doesn’t change. For example, if you changed your calendar to 193 days from 194, the per diem rate for an annual rate of $50,000 would increase to $259.07 from $257.73. |
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You will not report salary or service credit for February 18, 2008. |
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You will have to recalculate ESA leave quotes. |
Complete form and return
To help ensure reporting accuracy for the profiles affected by this new statutory holiday, please complete and return the Family Day Information Request form (40 KB PDF) as soon as possible. Please fax the form to us at (416) 730-5362 or 1-800-339-9920.
If you have any additional questions, please contact us.
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