VACATION

11.1 Residents shall be entitled to four (4) weeks paid vacation during each year.

11.2 Vacations may be taken by housestaff at any time, but, subject to article 11.4, the timing of vacation may be delayed only where necessary, having regard to the professional and patient responsibilities of the hospital department for the time the vacation is requested.

11.3 Housestaff may arrange for their vacation to be taken in one (1) continuous period or in one or more segments of at least one (1) week in duration provided professional and patient responsibilities are met.

11.4 Requests for vacation shall be submitted in writing to the department head at least four (4) weeks before the proposed commencement of the vacation and not later than March 1. As an exception to the above, each resident taking a certification examination in the Spring shall have until one month prior to the date of the examination to make a written request for one week of his/her vacation entitlement. Vacation requests submitted before March 1, or one month prior to the date of a certification examination, will be considered in priority to those submitted after that time. All vacation requests must be confirmed or alternate times agreed to, in accordance with Article 11.2, within two (2) weeks of the request being made. Where the hospital department rejects the vacation request, it will do so in writing and include the reasons for rejecting the original vacation proposal.

11.5 There will be no adjustment to vacation entitlement for up to seventeen (17) weeks in the case of pregnancy leave of absence and/or up to thirty-seven (37) weeks in the case of parental leave of absence. Where a resident is entitled to and takes pregnancy leave and is also entitled to and takes parental leave, there will be no adjustment to vacation entitlement for up to thirty-five (35) weeks.

11.6 The Hospital shall not institute policies that restrict the amount of vacation that residents can take over a given rotation, it being understood that the hospital continues to have the right to delay an individual resident's request where necessary having regard to the professional and patient care responsibilities of the hospital department pursuant to Articles 11.2 and 11.3.