CAY HILL–Every election time lawyers receive questions from employers with regard to giving their employees time off to vote. “There are many misconceptions surrounding this issue,” attorney-at-law Camiel Koster of the BZSE law office in Cay Hill said Monday.
The law stipulates the following: based on Article 44 of the Voting Ordinance, eligible voters can cast their votes between 8:00am and 8:00pm, and, therefore, in a total period of 12 hours.
Based on Article 45 of the Voting Ordinance, an employer is obligated to ensure that its employees can cast their votes, but only insofar as the casting of the vote is not possible outside of working hours, and provided that the employee will not be absent for more than two hours.
“The above means that an employee who works a ‘regular’ eight-hour shift is in principle not entitled to any time off, as the employee can cast his/her vote outside of working hours,” Koster explained.
“Only people who work for more than 10 hours between 8:00am and 8:00pm are entitled to two hours off,” the lawyer said. “Please note that in a Collective Labour Agreement (CLA), handbook or in the individual employment agreement, deviations in favour of the employee may have been agreed on.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/93785-many-misconceptions-about-time-off-to-vote
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