Updated from the original article published in the NSAdvocate 29 July 2021 here.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – On Monday August 5 Nova Scotia celebrates Natal Day – a day off with pay for the lucky 28% of workers who are represented by a trade union. But it’s likely a normal workday for people who work in retail, food service, and tourist accommodation. 

Retail workers, shop assistants, grocery clerks, gas station attendants, are among the many low paid workers who must work on Natal Day.  If your workplace be it an office, a warehouse, a garage, or florist is closed, you get the day off, but the employer is not obliged to pay you for your day off.

Natal Day is a civic rather than a public holiday. There are only 6 paid statutory holidays (or public holidays) in Nova Scotia each year – we tie with Newfoundland and Labrador for the lowest number of paid days off work. 

Almost every store, bar and business will be open on Natal Day, some at reduced hours.  And if you work on Monday, you will work for your regular pay; there is typically no premium paid for work on Natal Day (unless you are in a union). This is another “punishing” holiday courtesy of the NS government.

For the next paid holiday (public holiday), you will have to wait until Labour Day, Monday September 2.

If you want to get a paid holiday on Natal Day next year, please contact me to find out how to organize a union. You deserve the day off with pay.

Paid Statutory holiday provision in Canadian provinces:

Canadian Province or territory	# of paid or statutory holidays each year	August Holiday: it is not a paid holiday in each province.  If the business or government office is unionized,  usually the union bargained for a paid day off.
BC	10 paid holidays per year	August, 1st Monday Non-statutory or optional holiday
AB	9	Heritage Day, 1st  Monday in Aug. Non-stat. or optional holiday
SK	10	Statutory holiday, 1st  Monday in Aug.  Saskatchewan Day- PAID day off
MB	8	Non-stat holiday,1st Monday in Aug.
ON	9	1st Monday in August,  non-statutory
QC	8	Celebrate St Jean Baptiste, 24 June, Statutory PAID day off
NB	8	First Mon. in Aug. New Brunswick Day, Stat. holiday. PAID day off
PEI	8	Not a stat. holiday
NS	6	First Mon. in Aug. Natal Day, non-statutory holiday – NOT always PAID unless you have a collective agreement
NF and Labrador	6	Regatta day, 1st Wed. in Aug, stat holiday PAID day off
NU	10	Civic Holiday, 1st Mon. in Aug. PAID day off
YK	10	Discovery Day, 3rd Mon. in Aug. PAID day off
NWT	9	Civic Holiday, 1st Mon. in Aug. PAID day off

Featured painting at the top: Beach Crowd, by Molly Lamb Bobak (Canadian 1922-2014). I couldn’t find a date for the painting, but for the last 50 years of her long life, Bobak lived in Fredericton, NB. There she taught art and painted. Here is a great 2 minute film about her life and times.