How much rest am i entitled to between work weeks?
Short answer
In Quebec, every employee is entitled to a weekly rest period of at least 32 consecutive hours (s. 78 of the Act respecting labour standards).
In detail
The Act does not say which day that rest must fall on: the choice generally belongs to the employer in organizing the schedule. It only requires that the 32-hour block be continuous.
That is what allows an employee to refuse to work a seventh day after six consecutive days of work: the weekly rest is owed. At the employee's request, the employer may postpone that rest to the following week where the situation permits.
Senior managers are excluded from this standard, as they are from most of the provisions on hours of work.
What to document
Your posted schedules and your actual hours over several weeks in a row, marking the days worked. A lack of rest is not visible on a single day: it appears when you line up the dates.
Put your facts in writing, free. Writing your version down early, keeping your documents dated and preparing your questions for a lawyer: the tool is there to document, never to advise.
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Official sources
- Act respecting labour standards (CQLR, c. N-1.1) — Légis Québec
- Act respecting labour standards — full text (CanLII)
- Au bas de l'échelle — Hours of work
Related questions
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What this page is not
This is general legal information about the law of Quebec and Canada, dated and sourced. It is not legal advice, not a strategy, and not a prediction about the outcome of a case. In Quebec, only lawyers and notaries may give legal advice (Act respecting the Barreau du Québec, ss. 128 and 133). Laws and amounts change: the official source always prevails over us.