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Designated paid holidays
All full-time employees (Indeterminate, term, casuals and students)
Full-time employees are entitled to 12 designated paid holidays each fiscal year (April 1 to March 31), provided you are paid the working day before OR the working day after the holiday. The exact paid holiday dates for 2022 and 2023 are available here.
- New Year’s Day
- Good Friday
- Easter Monday
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Civic Holiday*
- Labour Day
- National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
- Thanksgiving
- Remembrance Day
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day
* Provincial or civic holiday in the area where you are employed (CDS positions are officially located in Ottawa, Ontario, so in our case this corresponds to the Civic Holiday in August even if you live in another province). Team members in Quebec who wish to take off St-Jean-Baptiste in lieu of the August Civic Holiday should discuss with their team lead in advance.
Part-time employees:
Part-time employees are not paid for designated holidays when they fall on regularly scheduled days of work. Instead, part-time employees receive a premium in lieu of designated paid holidays. This premium is included in an employee’s regular pay.
Vacation leave
Indeterminate or term employees over three months
Your Collective Agreement governs how leave is earned and can be used. ↗️
For unrepresented employee groups (PE, PM-MCO or PL), leave benefits are governed by the Program and Administrative Services agreement ↗️
For executive employees, leave benefits are governed by Appendix A – Part II of the Directive on Executive Compensation ↗️
How much vacation or other types of paid leave am I eligible for?
| Vacation Days | 15 |
| Personal or Volunteer Days | 2 |
| Family Related Days | 5 |
| Sick Days | 15 |
| Statutory Holidays | 11 |
Casual, students or term employees of less than three months
You are not entitled to paid leave during your employment; you will not receive pay for any absence from the office. If you are absent from the office for up to 5 days, you are required to report an online request for Leave without pay in Phoenix.
You will be paid, on each cheque, 4% vacation pay on all hours worked.
How to request leave
An employee with PeopleSoft access (tablet only) ↗️
Log-in to PeopleSoft using your TBS Tablet.
TBS InfoSite > Employees’ corner > PeopleSoft (Leave Requests) > “PeopleSoft” > Double Click App (EN or FR) > Sign In with your credentials (same log-in ID as your tablet)
Then follow the steps pictured below to view your Leave Balances or submit a Leave Request.
An employee without Peoplesoft access:
Leave Application and Absence Report (tablet only) ↗️
If you are an employee who is on Secondment or Interchange, please refer to your Agreement to determine how to request leave.
Types of leave
The federal government offers employees a variety of types of leave depending on their needs.
Casual and Student employees:
You are not entitled to paid sick or vacation leave, or any other type of paid leave, except for bereavement leave. If you have been employed for 3 continuous months or more, you are entitled to 3 days of paid leave upon the death of an immediate family member. If you have been employed for less than 3 months, you are entitled to 3 unpaid days. Full details on what the Canada Labour Code provides. ↗️
- You are eligible for designated paid holidays provided you work the day before or the day after the holiday.
- You may take unpaid leave at your manager’s discretion.
Interchange and Secondment:
Please refer to your Secondment or Interchange Agreement to determine what leave you are entitled to.
Indeterminate and term employees with more than three months of service:
You are entitled to a variety of forms of leave. The details of your leave entitlement vary from one Collective Agreement to another. Please refer to your Collective Agreement for more details. ↗️
Most leave related information can be found on the TBS Infosite (tablet only). ↗️
You can find out what leave is allowed for a variety of situations, including, but not limited to:
- Bereavement leave
- Compensatory leave
- Court leave
- Domestic violence leave
- Family related leave
- Injury on duty leave
- Leave with income averaging
- Maternity or parental leave
- Medical, dental or pregnancy appointments
- One time leave (formerly marriage leave)
- Personal leave
- Sick leave
- Vacation leave
- Volunteer leave
Compensatory
Compensatory leave is accrued from any overtime or on-call hours you may have worked. These hours cannot be carried over. They are paid out to the employee at the end of the fiscal year.
Family related leave
Family Related leave is replenished at 37.5 hours at the beginning of every fiscal year. This leave is available for events such as a family member’s medical appointments, school engagements, any other family related time-off you may need. These days are not pro-rated, so you get the full 37.5 hours even if you start work part way into the year.
One-time leave:
After a 2 year employment period with the GC, you are given 37.5 hours of paid vacation time, formerly known as “Marriage Leave”, that you can use once in your career.
Personal:
Depending on your collective agreement, you may have 1 personal day and 1 volunteer day or 2 personal days available to you. These days can be taken anytime you want. They won’t show up as available in PeopleSoft, and will show up as a negative balance once you take them. These days can’t be carried over into the next fiscal year, so it is a good idea to use them before you use your vacation or sick leave.
Sick leave:
Sick leave is accrued monthly (9.375 hours) and is available for you anytime you need it. Please note that GoC does not have short-term disability leave, therefore if you ever needed an extended period of time off, sick leave is a great place to bank that time. If you don’t have enough sick leave accumulated before long term disability kicks in, you would need to take a leave without pay for that time.
Vacation leave:
Vacation time is fully granted at the beginning of your employment. Taking vacation time off in advance of earning it is possible, but please note that if you leave GoC sooner than anticipated, you will be expected to pay back that time-off.
Last updated: October 27, 2022