RETAIL WORKERS

Hello and welcome to another Ministry of Labour employment standards podcast. Today, we're going to discuss a couple of special rights concerning employees of most retail businesses.

Retail businesses are businesses which sell goods or services to the public. The special rights relate to working on public holidays and on Sundays.

Before we continue, we would like to point out that these rights are applicable only to some retail businesses.

They do not apply to the following types of businesses:

• Businesses that sell prepared meals such as restaurants, cafeterias, and cafés;
• Businesses that rent living accommodations such as hotels, tourist resorts, camps, and inns;
• The special rights also do not apply to businesses that provide educational, recreational or amusement services to the public for example, museums, art galleries, sports stadiums, theatres, bars, nightclubs;
• And they do not apply to businesses that sell goods and services that are secondary to the businesses described above and are located on the same premises. By this we mean such enterprises as museum gift shops and souvenir shops in sports stadiums.

The special rights we are about to discuss apply to all other types of retail businesses.

The first right is the ability to refuse work on public holidays. Retail employees who qualify have the right to refuse to work on a public holiday.

If the employee has signed an agreement to work on public holidays, they can still refuse if they give their employer 48 hours notice, in writing, that they are declining to work on a public holiday.

If the public holiday falls on a day that would ordinarily be a working day, most retail employees qualify for the public holiday off work with public holiday pay.

If the public holiday should fall on a day that would not ordinarily be a working day, or the employee is on vacation, most retail employees qualify for a substitute day off with public holiday pay.

The other right that applies to most retail employees is the right to refuse to work on a Sunday. This right to refuse work on a Sunday depends on when the employee was hired.

If the employee was hired before September 4, 2001, that employee has the right to refuse to work on a Sunday.

If the employee has agreed to work on Sundays, either when hired or after being hired, the employee may decline to work on a Sunday by giving the employer at least 48 hours advance notice.

Again, this right to decline work on Sundays applies only to employees hired before September 4, 2001.

Employees hired after September 1, 2001 have the right to refuse to work on a Sunday, unless the employee agreed, in writing at the time of hire, to work on Sundays.

That employee can later decline to work on Sundays for reasons of religious belief or religious observance by giving the employer at least 48 hours' notice before the employee's work was to begin.

Employees hired after September 4, 2001, can refuse to work on a Sunday if a public holiday should fall on that Sunday. Here, the employee is exercising his or her right not to work on a public holiday.

These special rights for employees are under the Employment Standards Act, and employers are prohibited from taking reprisals against employees who exercise their rights.

This means that an employee cannot be dismissed, intimidated or penalized in any way for exercising his or her rights under the act.

And that's it for this employment standards podcast.

If you wish further information on your rights as a retail employee, go to our website.

The address is Ontario.ca - forward slash - labour - l-a-b-o-u-r. That's, Ontario.ca - forward slash - labour - l-a-b-o-u-r.

Or, you may call our Information Centre at 1-800-531-5551. That's 1-800-531-5551.

There, specialists can answer any questions regarding your employment standards right.

This is the Ministry of Labour. Thank you for listening.

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