Full time nurse Benefits

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · May 4, 2009

What province are you in? Each collective agreement sets out the terms for paid vacations according to what has been negotiated by the union and the employers. For example, in Alberta vacation hours banked in one "vacation year" (May 1 to April 30) are to be taken in the following "vacation year". The contract says:

Vacation Entitlement

During each year of continuous service in the employ of the Employer, an

Employee shall earn entitlement to a vacation with pay to be taken in the next

following year and the rate at which such entitlement is earned shall be governed by the position held by the Employee and the total length of such service as follows:

(a) Staff Nurse and Assistant Head Nurse

(i) during the 1st year of such employment, an Employee earns a

vacation of 15 working days;

© Employee with Less than a Year of Service

An Employee who has less than one year of service prior to the 1st day of

May in any one year shall be entitled to a vacation calculated on the

number of months from the date of employment in proportion to which the

number of months of the Employee’s service bears to 12 months.

So your banked 40+ hours would entitle you to five (8 hour) days of vacation in the current vacation year which started this past Friday. You're entitled to 15 days of vacation in your first year of employment based on the percentage of the year you've worked, which is 4 months or 1/3 of a year. (15 X 1/3 = 5.) You would be paid for those vacation days at your basic rate of pay; no shift differentials for night shifts or weekends would be included because you didn't actually work the shifts.

As for sick time, it's banked based on a formula determined in negotiations. Here in Alberta it's 1 1/2 (8 hour) days per month from your date of hire to a maximum of 120 (8 hour) days. As of now you'd have 6 (8 hour) days of sick time in your bank. It is also paid out at the basic rate of pay. Our employer is not required to report our sick bank hours to us on our pay advice so it's hard to know just how many hours one has banked. (This is to "encourage attendance".) I've got enough hours in my sick bank to take about 60 - 12 hour shifts off should I become sick or a little more than 4 months at my FTE.