I remember in the 5th grade we were reproductive taught anatomy with black and white line drawings of adult genitalia and it literally didn’t occur to me that it had anything to do with my body or anyone else’s. The hairy spread beavers or the cross sections with lines referring to some squiggle as the vas deferens… It was about as meaningful as being in geography class trying to memorize the names of every island in the arctic.

what does that mean?

literally this week I overheard 2 ladies talking on the bus about getting in with City of Toronto as cleaners, which would be an upgrade. They were both public school cleaners. Talking about how they spend their existing 6 weeks of vacation. One at a school hosting summer school and camps so the work never stops; the other at a school where they are made to take the whole summer off by default.

One mentioned being a 20+ year, the other was a fairly recent hire from the sounds of it. The lifer was committed to the school board, but the junior was obviously really interested in getting in with the City if she could swing it. Because you get MORE with the city. But their hiring process is insane.

CUPE local 79 FTW apparently kicking IBEW ass.

IBEW you gotta change your name. get with the times.

fuck man that is EMBARRASSING for a union of any sort.

a few years ago, my friend got a remote IT job in the UK (from canada) and the VERY FIRST THING they started with upon hiring was planning the time off in relation to other people. it was so shocking to us, neither of us nor any of our friends had ever heard of this before. Here, people have so little time off that the employer can just coast on everyone working a little harder while their colleague is away a little bit here n there. But when you have people with 6-12 weeks off every year you do start to need to coordinate.

Ontario, Canada.

Employees with less than five years of employment are entitled to two weeks of vacation time after each 12-month vacation entitlement year. Employees with five or more years of employment are entitled to three weeks of vacation time.

If you read the link you will find the employer is allowed to pay out your vacation time as a % of pay. This is very common especially in lower wage sectors. You are then supposed to save up the money yourself to pay yourself for vacation when you take time off. In effect, you don’t get any paid vacation.

edit: I’ll also add that you have no right to select WHEN you take your vacay. A friend of mine worked in a factory that shut down for 2 weeks in august for maintenance, painting, service the machines etc. So everyone had to take their vacation during that time; no choice. That is unusual but not prohibited.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/vacation

9 public holidays

https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/public-holidays

Employees are entitled to up to 3 sick leave days per year once they have worked for an employer for at least 2 consecutive weeks.

This is new since COVID. Which at the time it was introduced, mandated 10 days away from work.

https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/sick-leave

There are also other kinds of leave like parental, bereavement and such, if you click any links you can see that in the sidebar. Nothing is very lush.

Everything is prorated to a 40 hour work week. Breaks don’t count. So if you work 20 hours per week, you are entitled to half of what is specified.

Any employer can offer more than this, of course. Professionals and higher valued workers can get more. Unions or individuals can negotiate. But a lot of people only get the minimum. Or less. Enforcement is minimal. It’s the honor system.

There are also exceptions like federal workers (government, airlines etc). And farm workers, who basically have zero rights of any sort.