Do employers have to provide employees time off to vote in a federal election?
All employees who are qualified electors, that is, those who are 18 years of age or older and Canadian citizens on polling day, are entitled to three consecutive hours on polling day for the purpose of casting their ballots. If an employee’s hours of work do not allow him or her three consecutive hours to vote, the employer must allow him or her sufficient time off to allow three consecutive hours for that purpose. For example, if an employee lives in an electoral district in which the hours for voting are 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., and the employee’s hours of work are 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., the employee’s hours of work will not allow three consecutive hours for voting. The employer might allow the employee to arrive late (at 12:30 p.m.), to leave early (at 6:30 p.m.), or provide the employee three hours off at some other point during the work day in order to allow the employee the opportunity to exercise the right to vote. As another example, if the employee lives in an electoral distr
