{"id":32496,"date":"2021-09-10T14:39:46","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T18:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=32496"},"modified":"2021-09-10T14:39:48","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T18:39:48","slug":"2021-federal-election-time-off-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/legal\/2021\/09\/10\/2021-federal-election-time-off-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"2021 Federal Election: Time Off to Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2021 federal election is just around the corner, on Monday September 20. Voters across the country will cast ballots to determine who will govern the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To give everyone an opportunity to vote, the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/canlii.ca\/t\/5553v\">Canada Elections Act<\/a><\/em> (<em>CEA<\/em>) requires that eligible voters have three consecutive hours to cast their vote on election day (s.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/ca\/laws\/stat\/sc-2000-c-9\/latest\/sc-2000-c-9.html#sec132subsec1\">132(1) <em>CEA<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Three Hour Window to Vote<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This means employers must make sure work hours allow employees a three hour window to vote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If an employee\u2019s hours of work don\u2019t give a three-hour window, the employer must give the necessary time off to create a three-hour window. There is a narrow exception for transportation companies (s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/ca\/laws\/stat\/sc-2000-c-9\/latest\/sc-2000-c-9.html#sec132subsec2\">132(3)<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Employers can choose when the time off will be given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How It Works<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not sure if you need to give your employees time off? Three simple questions will help you figure it out:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" type=\"1\"><li>What are the voting hours in your employee\u2019s riding?<\/li><li>What are your employee\u2019s work hours?<\/li><li>Do the work hours allow a 3-hour window to vote?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there is already a 3-hour window, employer\u2019s don\u2019t have to give extra time off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there is not a 3-hour window, employers do have to give time off to create that 3-hour window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Examples<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"984\" height=\"529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20191016-Time-Off-to-Vote-Chart-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28595\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20191016-Time-Off-to-Vote-Chart-1.png 984w, https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20191016-Time-Off-to-Vote-Chart-1-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/20191016-Time-Off-to-Vote-Chart-1-768x413.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 984px) 100vw, 984px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Penalties &amp; Fines for Employer Non-Compliance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Employers cannot deduct pay or impose any penalty on an employee for time off given to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Employers who fail to provide time off, deduct pay, or impose penalties can be prosecuted (s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/ca\/laws\/stat\/sc-2000-c-9\/latest\/sc-2000-c-9.html#sec489subsec1\">489(1)(a)<\/a>). Punishment is a maximum fine of $2,000 and\/or three months in prison (s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/ca\/laws\/stat\/sc-2000-c-9\/latest\/sc-2000-c-9.html#sec500subsec1\">500(1)<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Need More Info?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you need more information about ridings (maps, polling stations), voting hours, and candidate lists, check <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elections.ca\/home.aspx\">Elections Canada<\/a> where all of the official elections info can be found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2021 federal election is just around the corner, on Monday September 20. Voters across the country will cast ballots to determine who will govern the nation. To give everyone an opportunity to vote, the Canada Elections Act (CEA) requires that eligible voters have three consecutive hours to cast their&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/legal\/2021\/09\/10\/2021-federal-election-time-off-to-vote\/\" class=\"linkbutton\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ts_fic_featured_image_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[533,535,241,421],"series":[],"class_list":["post-32496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-election","tag-employment","tag-human-resources","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32496"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=32496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}