:confused: I have just been informed by my employer that major holidays, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Years day will no longer be paid for even though we are not required to work.

I am the only hourly employee at my office and cannot afford to lose these wages, especially since these holidays fall so close together. If I chose to work on these days, is my employer legally bound to pay me overtime since they are national holidays or do you know if I legally able to take vacation time instead?

My employer is based in Canada and they are not "the brightest bulbs" when it comes to California laws. I just want to have as much knowledge on this as possible

There are no provisions in California law that require an employer to pay premium wages for work on any holidays.

Whether or not your employer will allow you to use "vaction" time to make up for the lost pay would be up the the employer. The law allows employers to determine when vacation can be taken. From a common sense stand point, I could not see why they would object to using vacation pay for these days provided you have sufficient vacation time accrued.