Vacation, Public Holidays and Leaves Policy

Purpose

This policy explains vacation, public holidays and job-protected leaves at NEO, and how to ask for time off. It meets at least what Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA) requires. Your employment agreement may give you more; any paid time off beyond what the ESA requires is only as your agreement provides.

Who it applies to

Employees of NEO. Independent-contractor paralegals arrange their own time off under their agreements and our Independent Contractor Paralegals Policy. Students on placement arrange time away with their supervisor and school, under our Students and Placements Policy.

The ESA exempts some roles, such as some regulated professionals, from some of these rules, for example vacation and public holidays. If your role is exempt from a rule, your employment agreement says so and sets out what applies to you instead.

Asking for time off

1. Use Time Off in the staff portal: choose the type (vacation, sick day or another leave) and the dates. The principal decides, and you see the decision there.
2. Notice. Ask for vacation as early as you can, and at least two weeks ahead for a week or more. For leaves, give at least the notice the ESA requires (below), or tell us as soon as you can in an emergency.
3. In writing. Where the ESA requires written notice or a written agreement, a Time Off request, a record in the staff portal or an email counts.
4. Hand over. Before time off, tell the principal about any hearing, deadline or client commitment while you are away, so it is covered under our Deadlines and Limitation Periods Policy.
5. Privacy. Medical certificates and other evidence are kept confidentially, as our Employee Privacy and Personnel Records Policy explains.

Vacation

1. How much. At least two weeks of vacation after each vacation entitlement year, or three weeks once you have five years of employment.
2. The vacation entitlement year is each 12-month period starting on your first day of work, unless the firm sets a different recurring year (an "alternative vacation entitlement year", such as the calendar year) and tells you. In that case, the ESA's rules for the partial period before the first alternative year (the "stub period") apply.
3. Scheduling. The principal decides when vacation is taken, as the ESA allows, and takes your wishes, hearings and deadlines into account. Vacation is taken in periods of at least one full week (for example, two separate weeks, or one two-week block), unless you ask in writing for shorter periods (a Time Off request is fine) and the principal agrees.
4. Use it. Vacation must be taken within 10 months after the end of the vacation entitlement year it was earned for. You can give up vacation time only if the principal agrees and the Director of Employment Standards approves, and you still receive the vacation pay. If you are on a leave when the deadline arrives, you take the rest of the vacation as soon as the leave ends, or later if you and the principal agree.
5. Vacation pay is at least 4% of the wages (not counting vacation pay) you earned in the vacation entitlement year, or 6% once you have five years of employment. Because you are paid by direct deposit, it is paid on or before the pay day for the pay period in which your vacation falls, unless you agree in writing to have it paid with each pay (shown separately on your pay statement) or at another agreed time. Pay days are the 1st and the 16th, as our Payroll and Pay Days Policy explains.
6. A vacation statement of your vacation time and pay is available on written request, within the time the ESA sets, unless your vacation pay is paid with each pay.
7. When employment ends, vacation pay you have earned and not received is paid with your final pay.

Public holidays

Ontario's nine public holidays are:

• New Year's Day
• Family Day (the third Monday in February)
• Good Friday
• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Labour Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day
• Boxing Day (December 26)

Easter Monday, the Civic Holiday in August, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Remembrance Day are not ESA public holidays. Whether you work on those days, and whether a day off is paid, depends on your schedule and your employment agreement.

1. A day off with public holiday pay. If a public holiday falls on one of your working days, you get the day off with public holiday pay: the regular wages you earned and the vacation pay payable to you in the four work weeks before the week of the holiday, divided by 20.
2. The days either side. You lose public holiday pay if, without reasonable cause, you don't work all of your last regularly scheduled day of work before the holiday or all of your first regularly scheduled day of work after it.
3. A holiday on a day off or during vacation. You get a substitute day off with public holiday pay, within three months (or 12 months if you agree in writing), or, if you agree in writing, public holiday pay for the holiday instead. We tell you the substitute date in writing before the holiday.
4. Working on a holiday happens only if you agree in writing (an email or the staff portal is fine). You then receive either your regular pay for the hours worked plus a substitute day off with public holiday pay (with the date given to you in writing before the holiday), or, if you agree in writing, public holiday pay plus premium pay of one and a half times your regular rate for each hour worked.
5. Pay days on holidays. If the 1st or the 16th falls on a weekend, a public holiday or another day banks are closed, you are paid on the business day before.

Job-protected leaves

ESA leaves are unpaid, except the first five days of domestic or sexual violence leave. Each leave has its own limits, and "employed" means employed by NEO.

• Sick leave: up to 3 days each calendar year for your own illness, injury or medical emergency, after 2 consecutive weeks of employment. We won't ask for a doctor's note, as our Hours of Work, Overtime and Attendance Policy explains.
• Family responsibility leave: up to 3 days each calendar year, after 2 consecutive weeks, for an illness, injury, medical emergency or urgent matter involving a family member the ESA lists: your spouse; a parent, step-parent, foster parent, child, step-child, foster child, grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild or step-grandchild of you or your spouse; your child's spouse; your brother or sister; or a relative who depends on you for care.
• Bereavement leave: up to 2 days each calendar year, after 2 consecutive weeks, when one of those family members dies.
• Pregnancy leave: up to 17 weeks (longer in some cases the ESA sets out), if you started work at least 13 weeks before your due date. Give 2 weeks' written notice.
• Parental leave: up to 61 weeks if you also took pregnancy leave, or 63 weeks otherwise, for a new parent, including through adoption, after 13 weeks of employment. It must start within 78 weeks after the child is born or comes into your care. Give 2 weeks' written notice.
• Placement of a child leave: Ontario has passed a new unpaid leave of up to 16 weeks for adoptive parents and intended parents through surrogacy, but it was not yet in force when this policy was last updated. Until it is, these parents can take parental leave if they qualify for it.
• Family caregiver leave: up to 8 weeks each calendar year for each family member with a serious medical condition, with a certificate from a qualified health practitioner.
• Family medical leave: up to 28 weeks in a 52-week period to care for a family member who has a serious medical condition with a significant risk of death within 26 weeks, with a certificate.
• Critical illness leave: up to 37 weeks to care for a critically ill child under 18 who is a family member, or up to 17 weeks for a critically ill adult family member, within a 52-week period, after 6 consecutive months of employment, with a certificate.
• Long-term illness leave: up to 27 weeks in a 52-week period when your own serious medical condition, including a chronic or episodic one, keeps you from working, after 13 consecutive weeks of employment, with a certificate. This leave has been available since June 19, 2025.
• Child death leave: up to 104 weeks if your child under 18 dies, after 6 consecutive months of employment.
• Crime-related child disappearance leave: up to 104 weeks if your child under 18 disappears and it is probable that it was the result of a crime, after 6 consecutive months of employment.
• Domestic or sexual violence leave: up to 10 days and up to 15 weeks each calendar year, after 13 consecutive weeks of employment, if you or your child experience domestic or sexual violence or the threat of it. It covers medical care, counselling, victim services, moving, and legal or police help. The first 5 days each year are paid. Records about this leave are kept strictly confidential, and our Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment Policy and Program explains the support available at work.
• Organ donor leave: up to 13 weeks, and up to 13 more if a medical certificate supports it, when you donate an organ, after 13 weeks of employment.
• Reservist leave: for as long as you are deployed, in military skills training, or recovering from an injury or illness caused by that service, as the ESA sets out. You generally need 2 consecutive months of employment, but there is no minimum for a deployment to help with an emergency in Canada.
• Emergency leave: for the reasons the ESA sets out during an emergency declared by the Ontario government, or for reasons related to a designated infectious disease (currently diseases caused by a novel coronavirus, such as COVID-19).
• Job seeking leave: up to 3 days to look for work, if you receive notice in a mass termination of 50 or more employees.
• Jury duty: under Ontario's Juries Act, you get leave for jury service and your job back afterwards. Whether it is paid depends on your employment agreement.

The ESA defines "family member" differently for some leaves: family medical leave and critical illness leave use a wider list that also includes, for example, in-laws, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and anyone who considers you to be like a family member.

We may ask for evidence of your entitlement where the ESA allows, such as the certificates listed above. Sick, family responsibility and bereavement days taken under your employment agreement for the same reasons count toward those ESA leaves.

Employment Insurance and your Record of Employment

During some leaves you may qualify for Employment Insurance benefits from Service Canada, such as maternity, parental, sickness or caregiving benefits. Service Canada decides who qualifies. NEO issues your Record of Employment within Service Canada's deadline, as our Payroll and Pay Days Policy explains.

Your rights during and after a leave

1. Your job back. When your leave ends, you return to your position or, if it no longer exists, a comparable one.
2. Length of service. Time on leave counts toward your seniority, length of employment and length of service.
3. Benefit plans. If you belong to a benefit plan through NEO, you stay in it during most leaves, and the firm keeps paying its share, unless you tell us in writing that you won't pay your share.
4. No reprisal. No one at NEO will penalize, threaten or treat you unfairly for asking about, planning or taking a leave, or for asking about any other ESA right.

Review

This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and whenever employment standards change, including when the placement of a child leave comes into force. The principal approves every change, and employees are told about changes before they take effect.

Questions

Ask the principal, or email info@neolegalservices.com, call 647-200-3526 or toll-free 888-519-2435, or write to us at Unit 236, 1099 Kingston Road, Pickering, Ontario L1V 1B5.