If your HR playbook was written in Toronto or Chicago, half of it does not apply here. Quebec employment standards come from a civil law tradition, and the gaps show up in payroll before court.
The Act respecting labour standards, the Quebec Labour Standards Act, sets a floor. Any working condition below it is void, even if the employee signed for it. The CNESST enforces it.
Quebec statutory holidays: eight, and the pay math
Quebec has eight paid statutory holidays, seven from the Labour Standards Act and June 24, the Fête nationale, from its own statute (CNESST). Remembrance Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 bind federally regulated employers only.
Holiday pay is 1/20 of the wages earned in the four complete pay weeks before the holiday week, overtime excluded, and 1/60 of the previous 12 complete pay weeks for anyone paid wholly or partly on commission (CNESST). Not a day of pay.
For seven of the eight, an employee absent the working day before or after, without authorization and without a valid reason beyond their control, loses the paid day. June 24 has one condition: being employed on the date.
Quebec overtime rules: the week is the unit
The standard work week is 40 hours, and every hour past it is paid at 1.5 times the usual hourly rate (CNESST). There is no daily overtime in Quebec. A 10-hour Monday and a 6-hour Tuesday produce none.
Time off in lieu is the employee's call, not the employer's: only at their request, or under a collective agreement or a decree. An imposed time bank is not compliant.
An annual salary is not an exemption either. Section 54 excludes certain categories, managers among them, but a title alone qualifies nobody. Excluded employees keep their regular rate and lose only the premium.
Employees can also refuse overtime (CNESST).
Vacation and paid leave
The three-week threshold moved from five years to three on January 1, 2019. The reference year normally runs May 1 to April 30, and the employer sets the dates but must give at least four weeks of notice (CNESST).
Two paid days of absence per calendar year open after three months of service, all reasons combined (CNESST). Most of our clients offer more.
Quebec termination notice
Notice must be written. Not verbal, not a posted memo. Skip it and you owe an indemnity equal to the regular wages for the missing notice period, payable at termination (CNESST).
Group terminations run on a separate clock, counted over two consecutive months in the same establishment, and the collective notice does not replace the individual one (CNESST).
Quebec severance pay: the Act has none
There is no statutory severance pay in Quebec. The Act gives notice, or an indemnity in lieu, and section 82 is not an exclusive recourse. Article 2091 of the Civil Code of Québec sits on top: reasonable notice, which for a senior, long-service employee runs to months.
Constructive dismissal in Quebec
When an employee refuses a unilateral, substantial change to an essential condition of the employment contract and leaves, that is a dismissal, not a resignation, with the same reasonable-notice exposure.
At two years of continuous service, an employee can file a complaint for dismissal without good and sufficient cause within 45 days, and the employer carries the burden of proof (CNESST).
Two easy-to-miss changes
Since September 27, 2024, the mandatory psychological and sexual harassment policy must cover specific ground: training, the investigation process, confidentiality (CNESST). The deadline to file a harassment complaint is two years from the last manifestation of the conduct, not 90 days. And the general minimum wage has been $16.60 an hour since May 1, 2026.
The half-day compliance review
- Calculate overtime weekly, never daily.
- Recalculate holiday pay at 1/20, especially part-time.
- Confirm the third vacation week opens at three years.
- Re-read the harassment policy against the September 2024 requirements.
- Model Civil Code exposure on your five longest-service seniors.
Those five are compliance, not good management. At Inlead RH (inleadrh.ca) we clear them early: structure built on non-compliant payroll collapses at the first grievance.
The HR self-assessment covers much more than the Act. On pay, the salary band calculator and the Quebec pay equity checker cover the other half of your legal exposure. The cost of a departure prices what a notice indemnity never shows, and the turnover rate calculator tells you if it is one exit or a pattern.
Compliance is not an HR strategy. It is the entry fee for having one.
