Requesting a Holiday

As you know, the contract language regarding holidays is as follows:

• Requests for the summer holidays (Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day) will be granted by seniority, however, each nurse who so requests shall have at least one (1) of the three (3) summer holidays off, provided that each Employee who works Thanksgiving shall have at least two (2) of the summer holidays off.
• Requests for the summer holiday(s) shall be made from February 1 to February 16, and approval shall be by February 23. The Employer shall post a list on each unit during this request period. Employees working Thanksgiving shall indicate one (1) of the three (3) summer holidays they will work; Employees not working Thanksgiving shall indicate two (2) of the three (3) summer holidays they will work.
• Any Employee may switch a holiday off, or portion thereof, with any other Employee on the unit. Extra shifts off will be equitably distributed among Employees on the basis of seniority and shall not change the Employees' rotation of holidays. Such extra shifts shall be made available when the time block is created. (Article XV, section 3(a))

All nurses, regardless of seniority, should put in their request for two holidays to work if they are off on Thanksgiving or one holiday to work if they are working Thanksgiving. The holidays are granted off according to seniority. So, for instance, if your unit requires six (6) nurses to work on any given holiday, and six nurses with more seniority to you have requested to work July 4th, then as the seventh (7th) most senior nurse on the unit, you will not be granted July 4th to work. You must choose from the rest of the holidays to request to work.

Continuing with the example given above, as the seventh (7th) most senior nurse on the unit, if you have requested to work Labor day and six other nurses signed up to work Labor Day and one of the six other nurses on the Labor Day list is junior to you, then you will be approved to work Labor Day and the nurse junior to you will have to choose from the rest of the holidays to put her/his name.

Because holidays are granted by seniority and not on a "first come, first serve" basis, nor on a ranked basis, a nurse should check the holiday request form right before it is submitted for approval to make sure that not too many nurses with more seniority have signed up for the same holiday to work. You are required to schedule yourself to work two holidays, including Thanksgiving. If you keep your name on the list for a specific holiday that has six nurses with more seniority to you on it, you will be bumped from that holiday and be scheduled to work on the holiday that you are needed. You will not necessarily be granted the holiday you would have chosen as a second choice. The Head Nurse is under no obligation to ask you to choose from the remaining holidays, presuming you were bumped out of another holiday.

If, before the holiday request form is submitted for final approval, you had removed your name from the holiday that you wouldn't have been approved for, and instead, put your name on the list for a holiday that your seniority would have ensured, then you maintain more control over your holiday schedule.

After the request period is over and the requests have been approved, a senior nurse can not "bump" a junior nurse out of a holiday that the junior nurse has been approved for.

Not every scenario can be addressed in this memo, so please feel free to discuss your situation with a delegate if you feel a contract violation has occurred. If a junior nurse is approved for a holiday over a more senior nurse who had made the request during the request period, then a contract violation most likely occurred. All concerns and questions that union members bring to the union's attention are investigated. A grievance will be filed if the contract was violated.

Hopefully, this information is helpful when thinking about the holiday request process. As always, feel free to call the union and/or speak with a delegate for this or any other workplace issue.