Quick Hits

• Premier Doug Ford has called for an Ontario provincial election to be held on February 27, 2025, requiring employers to provide eligible employees with three consecutive hours of paid time off to vote if their work schedules do not already allow for it.
• Employees must be Canadian citizens, eighteen years of age or older, and residents of Ontario to be eligible for voting time off. An employer can choose when the three hours are taken if an employee qualifies.
• Employers must grant job-protected leave for employees volunteering as poll officials with proper notice, and failure to comply with these provisions can result in significant fines or imprisonment.

Employers must give eligible employees three consecutive hours of paid time off in order to vote while polls are open. This right is provided in Ontario’s Election Act, unlike most leaves of absence provided for employees in Ontario’s Employment Standards Act, 2000.

To be eligible for the three hours, an employee must be eligible to vote. This means the employee must be a Canadian citizen, eighteen years of age or older, and reside in the Province of Ontario.

An employee is not eligible to receive time off to vote if the employee already has three consecutive hours off outside of working hours. Polls will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (EST), and 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (CST) on election day. This means that if an employee works from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on election day, the employee will have three consecutive hours available after his or her working hours and will not be entitled to the time off. On the other hand, an employee working a ten-hour shift from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on election day would not have three consecutive hours available outside of working hours and would be eligible for three hours of paid time off.

Where an employee is eligible for time off, the employer may choose when the three consecutive hours are taken.

When an employee volunteers as a poll official for Elections Ontario, and the employee requests a leave of absence with at least seven days’ notice to the employer, the employer must grant the employee job-protected leave to perform his or her poll official duties under the Election Act. An employer is prohibited from dismissing or disciplining an employee who elects to take this leave. While an employer is not required to compensate an employee for the time taken for a leave relating to poll official duties, such a leave must not be deducted from an employee’s vacation entitlement.

Where an employer denies an eligible employee the three consecutive hours of time off to vote or infringes an individual’s right to serve as a poll official, the employer may face a fine of up to $5,000 for contravening the Election Act. If a judge determines that this denial was done knowingly, a person may be liable for a fine up to $25,000, or imprisonment for up to two years less a day.