Most employees in Ontario are covered under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) that provides the minimum standards for basic rights, such as minimum wage, hours of work, overtime pay, leave and vacation time.

Who do special rules apply to?

Most agricultural and farm type workers do not have the same rights to minimum hours of work and wages as other workers in Ontario.

Special rules and exemptions apply to the following 10 types of workers and occupations:

1. Farm employees (workers on a farm growing or producing eggs, milk, grain, seeds, fruit, vegetables, mushrooms, maple products, honey, tobacco, herbs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, deer, elk, ratites, bison, rabbits, game birds, wild boar and cultured fish)
2. Fresh fruit and vegetable processors (seasonal employees who work in the canning, processing, packing or distribution of fresh fruit or vegetables)
3. Fruit, vegetable and tobacco harvesters (workers on a farm harvesting fruit, vegetables or tobacco for wholesale, retail sale or storage)
4. Flower growers (workers who grow flowers for wholesale and retail sale)
5. Fishers
6. Growing, transporting or laying sod
7. Tree and shrub growers
8. Horse boarding and breeding
9. Hunting and fishing guides
10. Furbearing mammal keepers (workers who keep furbearing mammals for breeding or the fur trade)

What are the special rules?

Farm workers / Fishers / Fruit, vegetable and tobacco harvesters

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are entitled to:

• personal emergency leave
• notice of termination or termination pay
• severance pay

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are not entitled to:

• minimum wage
• hours of work (neither minimum nor maximum)
• daily rest periods
• time off between shifts
• weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
• eating periods
• overtime
• public holidays
• vacation with pay

Flower growers / Growing, transporting or laying sod / Tree and shrub growers / Horse boarding and breeding / Furbearing mammal keepers

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are entitled to:

• minimum wage
• personal emergency leave
• vacation with pay
• notice of termination or termination pay
• severance pay

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are not entitled to:

• hours of work (neither minimum nor maximum)
• daily rest periods
• time off between shifts
• weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
• eating periods
• overtime
• public holidays

Hunting and fishing guides

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are entitled to:

• special minimum wage rate
• eating periods
• vacation with pay
• notice of termination or termination pay
• severance pay

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are not entitled to:

• hours of work (neither minimum nor maximum)
• daily rest periods
• time off between shifts
• weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
• overtime
• public holidays

Fresh fruit and vegetable processors

Under the ESA, workers in these categories are entitled to:

• minimum wage
• hours of work (minimum/maximum)
• daily rest periods
• time off between shifts
• weekly / bi-weekly rest periods
• eating periods
• personal emergency leave
• public holidays
• vacation with pay
• notice of termination or termination pay
• severance pay
• overtime pay for each hour worked over 50 hours in a work week

Get help

For more information and to find what the minimum standards are, view the Government of Ontario’s Guide to the Employment Standards Act, or refer to the Act. For legal help and assistance, contact an employment lawyer.

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