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Your Unifor 2025 - PSAC collective agreement (now available in its final version on the Intranet and on the Unifor 2025 Local website) contains many provisions dealing with your leave, overtime accumulation and how you can use it.
You don't need to read everything, but you can click on the sections that interest you:
1. Public holidays
2. Other leave that is not carried over
3. Overtime
4. Overtime bank - maximum 49
5. How to cash in my overtime
Let's start with something simple.
1. Public Holidays
You want to know if the PSAC is open on Good Friday, the day after Christmas or on Family Day in your province? Go to Article 18.01, Statutory Holidays. You will find that you will be off on Good Monday, December 26, but not on Family Day. We now have two additional leave: June 21, National Aboriginal Peoples Day, and September 30, National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
2. Leave that does not carry over
When planning to take annual leave or holiday, consider what leave does not carry over into the year and take it before you dig in your accrued overtime or holiday time.
Here are the leaves that do not carry over from one year to the next:
A- Leave that can be used without having to justify its use :
• Stress leave - article 40.13 (stress leave can now be taken before or after other types of leave)
• Volunteer leave, 17.09(d)
B- Special leave for specific reasons:
• Leave with pay for family-related responsibilities - 17.09(b)
• Leave with pay for personal responsibilities - 17.09(c)
• And several other specific leaves indicated in Article 17.
3. Overtime
Here the conditions depend on your salary level.
Levels 8 and 9
Article 14.01 a) You earn all authorized hours worked in excess of your scheduled hours of work.
Level 10 and above
Article 14.01 (b) for authorized work performed on a day of rest.
Key word in all cases: "authorized": that is, the employer has given you permission to work these hours.
The rest of the article indicates how the hours are counted and how they can be compensated in money or time.
4. One overtime hour hides another!
As we saw in Article 14.01 b, members at levels 10 and above can only earn overtime when they work on a day of rest. However, there is an exception to Article 14.14: authorized overtime hours in excess of the normal schedule (i.e., the week) may be accumulated in a yearly bank to a maximum of 49 hours per year. These hours cannot be carried over to another year or cashed in.
To build up your bank, you need to note the daily hours you work in Kronos. They will be placed in the Overtime Bank Max49. The overtime hours done outside your normal working hours are placed in the bank CompTime Bank.
5. Taking or cashing in your overtime
You can take or cash in your accumulated overtime (except for the hours in the Max Time Bank49) and your annual leave (article 15.01).
Next bulletin: the carry-over of annual leave specified in Article 15.11 and Memorandum of Understanding 16.
Just to whet your appetite: if you have annual leave accrued beyond what is provided for in Article 15.11, start planning for the use of these hours before June 2023.
