With the upcoming federal election taking place on Monday, April 28, 2025, the Canada Elections Act obligates employers to have consideration for their employees' ability to vote on election day.
Under the Canada Elections Act, employers may be required to provide paid time off from work to employees who are eligible to vote in the federal election depending on the hours they are scheduled to work. Eligible voters are Canadian citizens who are 18 years of age or older on election day.
Every employee who is eligible to vote is entitled to three consecutive hours for the purpose of casting his or her vote. Therefore:
- If an employee does have three consecutive hours outside of scheduled work hours to vote on election day, employers are not required to provide their employees with paid time off. For example, if an employee is scheduled to work until 5:30 p.m. on election day, the employee will then have three consecutive hours from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to vote and therefore will not be entitled to additional time off with pay.
- If the employee does not have three consecutive hours during voting hours to cast their vote due to their working hours, their employer is required to allow such time off as is necessary to provide those three consecutive hours. Of note, the time that the employer allows off work for voting is at the convenience of the employer. For example, if an employee is scheduled to work from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., the employer will have the discretion to provide three consecutive hours by allowing the employee to leave work early at 5:30 p.m. with one hour of paid time off to provide three consecutive hours for voting as is legally required.
Voting hours in the Atlantic provinces will be from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., in the applicable Time Zone.
The sole exception to the employer's obligation to provide three consecutive hours to vote arise in the case of employees of a company that transports goods or passengers by land, air or water, and who are employed outside their polling division in the operation of a means of transportation.
An employer shall be guilty of an offence for failing to provide employees with three consecutive hours to vote, making a deduction from the pay of an employee who requires time off to fulfil the requirement of having three consecutive hours to vote, and/or interfering with granting to an elector in their employ three consecutive hours for voting.
Workplaces with unionized employees should review any collective agreement provisions to determine if they provide additional or more favourable entitlements to eligible voters with regard to paid time off for the purposes of voting on election day.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
