Vacation
You are always encouraged to take your vacation every year. This is an important time for your refreshment, relaxation and relationships.
Request for vacation must be submitted on the software platform Timetastic. Your supervisor will be notified of your request for vacation and will respond to the request by approving in Timetastic unless you have exceeded your limit. You should consider your vacation to be granted once the approval is indicated in Timetastic wallchart.
We encourage you to submit your vacation request early to avoid conflicts in scheduling with other staff. You will also use Timetastic to report other types of leaves including illness, travel, personal days, etc. The Timetastic wall chart indicates all leaves for staff which encourages better communication among the team.
As a best practice we ask that you add a vacation alert to your email signature to remind others about any upcoming leaves. As well, you are expected during your time away to add an email auto response with details and redirection about when you will return.
The vacation period runs from January 1st to December 31st of the same year. If you have been allowed to take vacation in advance of earning it and your employment ends prematurely, the value of the unearned vacation will be deducted from their final pay.
You are strongly encouraged to use your vacation entitlement. If not used, a maximum of five vacation days will be carried forward to the next calendar year and will be updated appropriately in Timetastic. No accumulation of vacation beyond the five carry forward days is allowed.
Vacation allotment is based on years of service as indicated below.
| Years | Vacation Days |
| 1 – 10 | 15 |
| 11 – 19 | 20 |
| 20 – 24 | 25 |
| 25 + | 30 |
Public Holidays
Full time staff members will be paid for statutory and other holidays during the course of the calendar year as outlined below.
Part time, permanent, and contract staff will be paid holiday pay for each public holiday. In these cases, holiday pay for each public holiday will be the total amount of wages earned by him or her in the four weeks before the week in which the holiday falls, divided by twenty.
Holidays include the following:
| New Year’s Day | Family Day | Good Friday |
| Easter Monday | Victoria Day | Canada Day |
| Civic Holiday | Labour Day | Thanksgiving Day |
| Christmas Day | Boxing Day |
The Executive Director has the prerogative to determine other times in which the office will be closed during the Christmas season. The Christmas schedule will be set on a year-to-year and will be communicated to all staff by no later than December 1st.
Leaves
Sick Leave
Full time staff are provided five paid sick days per year and these are to be taken only if required. Sick days are for the purposes of providing for you when you need to be off for a medical reason and are not carried forward to the next year.
Personal Days
Full time staff are provided with three days of paid personal time in each calendar year. Unused personal time does not carry over to the following year. The use of personal time should be approved by your supervisor in advance, for scheduling and planning purposes and indicated in Timetastic.
Bereavement Leave
In the event of the death of a family member, you are entitled to bereavement leave for the purpose of arranging and/or attending the funeral, and to provide a period of time for grieving.
Up to five working days of paid bereavement leave will be provided to you for the death of an immediate family member (i.e., spouse or child).
Up to three working days of paid bereavement leave will be provided to you for the death of an extended family member (i.e., parent, sibling, grandparent.)
In the event of a death of other relatives (aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, etc.), or the death of a friend, you may request unpaid excused time to attend the funeral. You may take this time as unpaid time off, or alternatively may be taken from vacation time, unused personal days, or from approved lieu time.
Pregnancy and Parental Leave
Be In Christ will grant pregnancy and/or parental leave in accordance with federal and provincial employment standards. Eligibility for pregnancy and parental leave will also be based on the relevant employment standards as stated at the Government of Ontario’s website.
Pregnancy leave is up to seventeen weeks of job-protected, unpaid time off work. To be eligible, your baby’s due date must be at least thirteen weeks after the date you started employment.
Be in Christ Canada will continue to provide benefits to you as a full time employee for the duration of your pregnancy or parental leave. Long-term disability payments and other benefits normally paid by you will continue to be paid by you during this time. Post-dated cheques for these premiums must be provided to payroll services prior to leaving on pregnancy or parental leave. You will continue to accrue service while on pregnancy or parental leave as though they were actively at work. However, you will not accrue vacation during a pregnancy or parental leave.
Jury Duty
Jury and witness duty is your civic responsibility and is considered an excused absence. Be in Christ will pay the difference between your regular salary and the fee you receive for jury or witness service up to four weeks. Please contact your supervisor when you have received the notification to appear.
Compassionate Leave
Under Federal legislation, Canada provides Compassionate Care Benefits to Employment Insurance (EI) eligible workers. Be in Christ will adopt the same guidelines for allowing compassionate leave to eligible staff. Compassionate leave under this legislation allows eligible employees to receive EI benefits up to a maximum of six weeks, if the employee has to be absent from work to provide care or support to a gravely ill family member with a significant risk of death within twenty-six weeks (i.e., the family member is expected to pass away within six months.) A medical certificate is required to ensure eligibility. Those taking leave will be reinstated to their former positions or given a comparable role with the same salary and benefits.
A family member would include: your child or the child of your spouse, your spouse, your father or mother, your father’s wife or your mother’s husband.
Care or support to a family member means: providing psychological or emotional support, or arranging for care by a third party, or directly providing or participating in the care.
For information regarding eligibility, you should contact Service Canada directly.
Other Leaves
Be in Christ adheres to provincial employment standards. In Ontario, the Employment Standards Act (ESA) provides a number of unpaid leave provisions, with varying eligibility requirements and varying time away from work, whereby your job is protected. Understand that because Be in Christ already provides staff with paid leaves for various reason (i.e. sick leave & bereavement leave) days taken for any of these reasons may be considered part of the days allowed under a leave in Ontario e.g. Personal Emergency Leave provides two days paid.
For further information on eligibility requirements and provisions for employees, please refer to the following government of Ontario website.
Should you need to take a leave under these provisions, you are required to notify your supervisor as soon as possible. Your supervisor is allowed to ask you to provide proof that you are eligible for a leave. The employee is required to provide proof that is reasonable in the circumstances.
Sabbatical Leave
The primary purpose of sabbatical leave is to provide you, if you have a role as credentialed ministry staff, the opportunity to devote concentrated effort to activities designed to foster your spiritual and/or professional development.
If you have been employed by the BIC for at least seven continuous years in an eligible position you are eligible for a sabbatical leave. A sabbatical cannot span a period longer than four consecutive months. You have the option to delay your sabbatical by one or more years but accrual of sabbatical leave ceases after seven years (i.e., a maximum of sixteen weeks). Any costs for the sabbatical are entirely your responsibility. Except in unusual circumstances, only one employee may be on sabbatical leave at any one time.
You will continue to have the same status (part-time or full-time) while on sabbatical leave. While on sabbatical leave you shall continue to receive full pay and benefits as stated in the employee’s contract with Be in Christ. Sabbatical leave time shall be counted as part of an employee’s service to the denomination.
In applying for sabbatical leave, you are agreeing with the denomination that you shall be employed by the denomination for a minimum of one year of service in the same role after the end of the sabbatical leave.
With approval by your supervisor, sabbatical leave may be scheduled with all, or part, of any accrued vacation.
Your application for sabbatical is found in Appendix 11. Your application should be fully completed at least six months prior to the leave and presented to your supervisor who will then discuss this with the Executive Director. The Executive Director is responsible for reviewing and approving the sabbatical leave application and making a decision to approve the proposal.