Can an Ontario employer require an employee to work on a public holiday?

Generally, yes, but the Employment Standards Act, 2000 gives employees who work on a public holiday specific compensation rights in exchange. An employer can require or schedule an employee to work on a public holiday, but the employee is then entitled to either public holiday pay plus premium pay for the hours actually worked, or public holiday pay along with a substitute day off with public holiday pay, depending on what's agreed and how the employer chooses to comply.

An employee generally can't just be scheduled to work the holiday and paid only their ordinary wage for that day, as though it were an unremarkable working day. The specific compensation approach needs to follow the ESA's public holiday provisions, not whatever informal arrangement feels convenient at the time.

Because the compensation options interact with each other and with public holiday pay eligibility rules, employers scheduling staff over a public holiday should confirm they're applying the right combination before assuming a simple day's wage covers it. Getting this wrong is a common source of employee complaints, since holiday scheduling tends to draw attention that ordinary weekday scheduling doesn't.