The goal of the MNU Vacation Scheduling Guidelines is to ensure that all nurses employed by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, and covered by the MNU Collective Agreement receive their annual vacation scheduled in a fair and consistent manner.

The Team Managers / Nurse Resource Coordinators are responsible for ensuring that these vacation scheduling procedures are implemented in their respective offices by the deadlines stipulated and to ensure that vacation is scheduled for all nurses covered by the MNU Collective Agreement in accordance with these procedures.

Vacation schedules should be dealt with within each paired community area. (ex: if 2 nurses are allowed off in FG/RH then the seniority of the nurses among the 2 areas making up the paired area determines which two are allowed. It could potentially be 2 RH nurses and no FG nurses during that week).

Vacation schedules should be dealt with on an area by area basis within the paired community areas (ex. River Heights would have one schedule, Fort Garry would have another).

A. Vacation Entitlement Lists

1. MNU Vacation Entitlement Lists for each office will be posted in an accessible location by February 1st of each year.
2. The Vacation Entitlement List shall reflect each nurse's projected vacation entitlement as at March 31st of each year.
3. The Vacation Entitlement Lists will be prepared in seniority order and will indicate the following:
   1. Number of nurses in each occupational classification for each office that may be scheduled for vacation at any one time.
      
      

      Formula to use for each classification:
      Total vacation entitlement
      weeks required for the area = average number of staff allowed off
      52 weeks on vacation per week
      
      Note: Round up to next whole number where you have a fraction. See Appendix A.
      
      Do not approve any request that would exceed this number at any given point.
      
      Over the Christmas/New Years period the number of staff allowed off should be cut in half. Consideration should also be given to limiting the number of nurses off during peak times (ie. July/August). NRC's should review these numbers with their Team Manager prior to posting.

   2. Nurses name
   3. Projected vacation entitlement hours
   4. Projected vacation entitlement in weeks

B. Vacation Requests

1. One week prior to the commencement of appointments, a schedule will be posted scheduling an appointment for all nurses in order of seniority with their immediate supervisor/designate.
2. The purpose of this appointment is for each nurse to indicate in writing her/his choice of vacation dates.
3. The earliest day these appointments are to commence is February 15th. Preferably the appointments should be scheduled to commence March 1st. Depending on the number of nurses at each respective office it may be necessary to commence appointments prior to March 1st but no sooner than February 15th
4. It is imperative that nurses are provided with sufficient notice of their vacation scheduling appointment. It is also imperative that nurses on LOA, Income Protection, Vacation, etc. are notified of their vacation scheduling appointment.
5. Nurses in term positions shall also indicate their vacation requests.
6. These appointments shall take place in person, unless otherwise mutually agreed, and shall include reviewing the vacation selected/approved to date. The WRHA is prepared to mutually agree with nurses to select their vacation by telephone or a designate of a nurse if prior arrangements are made with the supervisor, but as indicated above the expectation is that the "appointments shall take place in person" as per Article 21 of the Collective Agreement.
7. Appointments can be scheduled in 30-minute intervals, as nurses are to come to the appointments prepared to indicate in writing her/his choice of vacation dates.
8. All of the nurse's earned vacation must be chosen at the vacation scheduling appointment, except for the three (3) 7.75 hour days as per Article 2101 of the Collective Agreement. If nurses do not select these three (3) days during their vacation scheduling appointments, seniority will not be considered when these dates are requested at a later date. A nurse must request to use these vacation days in accordance with Article 1501 of the Collective Agreement. April 1, NRC's should make a list of individual days that have not yet been scheduled. In October and January NRC's should review this list and remind Nurses of these days. To ensure all retained days are scheduled by March 31, any days not scheduled by February 15th will be scheduled by the NRC.
9. The selected vacation schedule shall be updated on an ongoing basis and shall be posted in an accessible location to allow nurses to remain current on what vacation periods have already been selected. The selected vacation schedule should be updated immediately following each nurse's selection.
10. It is mandatory for nurses to attend their vacation scheduling appointment. Except in extenuating circumstances, a nurse who fails to attend her/his appointment to indicate her/his choice of vacation dates shall be placed at the bottom of the seniority list for that office. Accordingly, when the schedule of appointments is completed the supervisor/designate will meet with the nurse(s) who failed to attend their scheduled appointment and in consultation with the nurse will schedule said vacation within the time periods remaining. Extenuating circumstances include but are not limited to a motor vehicle accident on the way to the appointment, death in the family, etc. Extenuating circumstances do not include; I forgot, my car did not start, etc.
11. When conducting the vacation scheduling appointments the supervisor/designate should ensure that they have the Vacation Entitlement List. Each office may utilize their own desired appropriate calendar for conducting the vacation scheduling appointments. Individual nurses indicating in writing their own vacation requests are to use the Annual Vacation Request Form. These individual forms are to be maintained by the supervisor in a separate file to back up the approved vacation schedule and thereafter can be destroyed after the completion of the vacation year.
12. When a nurse is granted a parenting LOA and is not anticipated to return prior to March 31st, every reasonable effort will be made to schedule her/his vacation prior to the leave. The nurse may retain 5 vacation days to utilize upon return from parenting LOA as per Article 24.
13. Vacation is to be requested in weeks, indicating the day of the week vacation is requested to begin as per Article 21 (i.e. the request is for 3 weeks starting Wednesday, July 6). Nurses are guaranteed to be off during the vacation period only. Any days off immediately before or after that request can not be guaranteed until such time the schedule covering those days is posted. Nurses should not request or be approved to work at any point during a week they have blocked off as vacation time. Only days the employee would be working within the vacation week should be coded as vacation days; days off during that vacation week should still remain coded as days off.
14. A part-time nurse who requests one week of vacation that includes her/his entire EFT, is advised that this is 2 weeks of vacation as per Article 34.
    
    
    1. One week of vacation is equivalent to half of the nurse's EFT.
    2. Two weeks of vacation is equivalent to the entire EFT.

    EFT	7.75/7.25 Hours/1 Week Vacation	11.63 Hours/1 Week Vacation	7.75/7.25 Hours/2 Weeks Vac.	1.63 Hours/2 Weeks Vacation
    1.0	5 days	3.3 days	10 days	6.7 days
    0.9	4.5 days	3 days	9 days	6 days
    0.8	4 days	2.7 days	8 days	5.3 days
    0.7	3.5 days	2.3 days	7 days	4.6 days
    0.6	3 days	2 days	6 days	4 days
    0.5	2.5 days	1.7 days	5 days	3.3 days
    0.4	2 days	1.3 days	4 days	2.7 days
    0.3	1.5 days	1 day	3 days	2 days
    0.2	1 day	0.6 days	2 days	1.3 days
    0.1	0.5 day	3.5 hours	1 day	7 hours

    If a Nurse chooses to take one week of vacation during a week where they normally work more than half of their EFT, you will have those additional days rescheduled within the period of posted hours to ensure their EFT is maintained. If they choose to take one week of vacation during a week where they normally work less than their EFT, a day from the previous week or the following week may be rescheduled into this short week in order to ensure that they receive their EFT in vacation time. See Appendix B. Rescheduled days are not confirmed with the Nurse at the meeting. They are confirmed when the schedule involving those dates is posted.

    Note: At the time of the meetings, all figures for PT Nurses are based on projections. Exact actual vacation hours will only be available after March 31. NRC's should review at that time and ensure vacation pay is based on actual figures and communicate as necessary.

15. Nurses who request to retain up to 3 vacation days for personal use shall have their number of weeks of vacation reduced as follows:
    
    Listed below is a table that identifies the amount of vacation taken if 3 vacation days are retained.
    

    EFT	= Vacation Taken
    1.0	1/2 week vacation
    0.9	1/2 week vacation
    0.8	3/4 week vacation
    0.7	1 week vacation
    0.6	1 week vacation
    0.5	1 week vacation
    0.4	2 weeks vacation
    0.3	2 weeks vacation
    0.2	3 weeks vacation
    0.1	6 weeks vacation

    Example #1 - a 0.6 EFT nurse with 4 weeks vacation retains three days... they then make 3 - seven day requests only.

    Example #2 - a FT nurse with 6 weeks vacation retains three days...they then make 5 - seven day requests plus a request for another _ week.

C. Approved Vacation Schedule

1. The approved vacation schedule within each office will be posted no later than April 1st. The approved vacation schedule shall list the dates of each nurse's vacation block(s) and vacation hours to be paid within each block.
2. The approved vacation schedule within each office shall not be changed unless mutually agreed between the nurse and the employer.

D. Full-Time Nurses Vacation

1. Vacation must be requested in weeks. One week's vacation is equal to 5 paid days (7.75 hours) as per Article 21. If a statutory holiday falls within a vacation request, vacation will be assigned and the recognized holiday will be scheduled or banked (if requested by the nurse).

E. Part-Time Nurses Vacation/ Excess Vacation

1. Vacation must be requested in weeks. One week's vacation is equal to 5 paid days (pro-rated) as per Article 34.
2. Excess vacations are those hours earned by the part-time nurses working occasional additional available shifts above their EFT. To ensure that the part-time nurses are treated similarly to full-time nurses with respect to vacation weeks, the following formula is used to calculate excess vacation hours to be paid within each vacation week requested.
   
   Total Excess Vacation Hrs Earned = # of excess vacation hours paid
   Vacation Entitlement (Weeks) per week regardless of EFT
   
   Example: Nurse earns 30 hours of excess vacation and has 5 weeks of vacation entitlement. (30/5)= 6 hours to be coded as (VS6) excess vacation on days off during each of their 5 vacation requests.
   
   PT Nurses shall be paid their earned excess vacation pay proportionately during each week of scheduled vacation. Nurses cannot use this excess vacation to request additional weeks of vacation that they are not entitled to.
   Note: Exact excess vacation hours will not be known until after March 31. NRC's will communicate these exact figures to each Nurse once they are available.

F. Vacation Allocation for Nurses on Leave During Accrual Year

1. If a nurse in on unpaid leave for a portion of or for the entire accrual year, then the vacation week(s) to which the nurse is entitled is reduced by the period of leave in the accrual year. A nurse who is on unpaid leave for 6 months during the vacation accrual year is entitled to only half of the vacation accrual (i.e. if she is earning vacation at the 4-week rate, she is entitled to only 2 weeks of paid vacation as per Article 21).

G. New Hires/Nurses Who Change EFT During Vacation Year

1. The rate of vacation accrual determines the vacation weeks, not the hours of vacation earned as per Article 21.
   1. A part-time nurse worked 0.5 EFT position, earned vacation at the 4-week rate and earned 77.5 hours of vacation. She has requested a vacation period of 3 weeks and one of 1 week. She has moved to a full-time position in the interim. So, 4 weeks vacation now equals 155 hours. The nurse is granted her request even though she has inadequate vacation hours for all the scheduled shifts in the 3 week and 1 week vacation periods. However, the nurse may choose to take only fully paid vacation weeks (i.e. this nurse could just take 2 weeks). The nurse shall not be forced to take an unpaid leave of absence in order to be off for the entire weeks (i.e. this nurse could choose not to take 2 unpaid weeks). The above applies to the new hire that has not accrued 3 weeks of vacation hours.
   2. The full-time nurse who has earned 155 hours vacation (4 weeks) and goes to a 0.5 EFT part-time position will be paid 4 weeks vacation (77.5 hours). The remaining 77.5 hours will be paid as vacation excess during the vacation period as per #1 under Part-Time Nurses Vacation above.

H. Nurses Who Transfer Between Offices

1. A nurse who transfers to another office after her/his vacation request has been approved, shall have her/his vacation scheduled by the supervisor/designate of the new office in consultation with the nurse within the time periods remaining during that vacation year.

I. Carry Over of Vacation

1. Carry over of vacation for nurses on maternity leave is 5 days for full time and part time employees (i.e. no pro-rating).

APPENDIX A - DETERMINING AVG NUMBER OF STAFF ALLOWED OFF

Formula to use for each classification:

Total vacation entitlement
weeks required for the area = average number of staff allowed off
52 weeks per week

1) Office A:

LPN's:                                                                        RN's:

=     2 Nurses  @ 5 weeks vacation = 10                    = 2 Nurses  @ 6 weeks vacation = 12

+     2  Nurses @ 4 weeks vacation = 8                      + 2 Nurses @  5 weeks vacation = 10

+     2  Nurses @ 3 weeks vacation = 6                      + 9 Nurses @ 4 weeks vacation =  36

                       Total = 24 weeks                                                   Total =  58 weeks

 

= 24  = .46 LPN's off each week                                = 58  = 1.12 RN's off each week

   52                                                                                52

 

= Round up to 1 LPN off each week                          = Round up to 2 RN's off each week

**Christmas will limit to 1 LPN and 1 RN off at one time

2) Office B:

LPN's:                                                                        RN's:

=     8  Nurses  @ 5 weeks vacation = 40                   = 8 Nurses  @ 6 weeks vacation = 48

+     5 Nurses @ 4 weeks vacation = 20                     + 7 Nurses @  5 weeks vacation = 35

+     5  Nurses @ 3 weeks vacation = 15                    + 3 Nurses @ 4 weeks vacation =  12

                        Total = 75 weeks                                                 Total =  95 weeks

= 75  = 1.44 LPN's off each week                              = 95  = 1.83 RN's off each week

   52                                                                                52

= Round up to 2 LPN's off each week                       = Round up to 2 RN's off each week

 

**Christmas will limit to 1 LPN and 1 RN off at one time

APPENDIX B

Example # 1:
Part Time Nurse Requesting Vacation week of 10th to 16th. Nurse is a 0.8 EFT, therefore 4 shifts = 1 week vacation. Has 5 shifts in week requested. Reschedule day shift from 14th to 29th. Code as vacation for 10, 11, 15, 16.

View the Appendix B Chart Here
Revised February 9, 2007