Farm employees

This applies to you if you work on a farm(s) 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
  • cultured fish

If you work for a temporary help agency, and are assigned to work on a farm, for this to apply you must be fundamentally integrated into the operation of the farm. Some factors that will be considered when deciding if there is fundamental integration, include the following:

  • Who assigns tasks to you on the farm. There may be more integration if the tasks are assigned by the farm, and not the temporary help agency.
  • Who controls your work when you are on the farm. There may be more integration if your work is controlled by the farm, and not the temporary help agency.
  • If you perform the same tasks as the employees of the farm, there may be more integration.
  • If you are regularly assigned to work on the farm and you work there without interruption (for example, you stay until the end of the season), there may be more integration.

This does not apply to you if you work for a commercial operator providing a specific service or set of services to a farm(s).

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • minimum wage
  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • three-hour rule
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay
  • vacation with pay

Special rules apply to you if you work on a farm:

  • harvesting fruit, vegetables or tobacco for wholesale, retail sale or storage
  • breeding or boarding horses

Fishers

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • minimum wage
  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • three hour rule
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay
  • vacation with pay

Flower growers

This applies to you if you work in growing flowers for wholesale and retail sale.

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay

Fresh fruit and vegetable processors

This applies to you if you are a seasonal employee and work in the canning, processing, packing or distribution of fresh fruit or vegetables. “Seasonal” means you work for the employer doing this type of work for 16 weeks or less within a calendar year.

Special rules or exemptions

You are entitled to overtime pay for each hour worked over 50 hours in a work week.

Growing, transporting or laying sod

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay

Tree and shrub growers

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay

Fruit, vegetable and tobacco harvesters

This applies to you if you work on a farm harvesting fruit, vegetables or tobacco for wholesale, retail sale or storage.

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • overtime pay

You are entitled to public holidays and public holiday pay after you have worked for the same employer for at least 13 consecutive weeks.

You may be required to work on public holidays if the public holiday is on a day that is normally a working day for you and you are not on vacation. If you must work on a public holiday, your employer can either:

  • pay you your regular rate for the hours you work on the public holiday and give you another day off with public holiday pay

    or

  • pay you public holiday pay and premium pay for the hours you work on the public holiday

You are entitled to vacation with pay after you have worked for the same employer for at least 13 weeks (the weeks do not have to be consecutive).

You are generally entitled to minimum wage. However, your employer can pay you less than minimum wage if:

  • you are paid on a piece work basis and the rate is high enough that you could earn at least minimum wage with reasonable effort, or
  • your employer gives you room and board and your employer deducts the costs from your pay (your employer cannot deduct more than the maximum amounts set out in O. Reg. 285/01)

Horse boarding and breeding

This applies to you if you are employed in the breeding or boarding of horses on a farm.

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay

Hunting and fishing guides, wilderness guides

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay

As a hunting and fishing guide or a wilderness guide, you are entitled to a special minimum wage rate.

These exemptions and the special minimum wage rate apply to wilderness guides as of June 3, 2019.  You are a wilderness guide if you are employed to guide, teach or assist a person or people while they are engaged in activities in a wilderness environment, including the following activities:

  • back-country skiing and snowshoeing
  • canoeing, kayaking and rafting
  • dogsledding
  • hiking
  • horseback riding
  • rock climbing
  • operating all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles
  • wildlife viewing
  • survival training

However, a wilderness guide does not include a hunting or fishing guide or a student under 18 years of age who works 28 hours each week or less or who is employed during a school holiday.

Furbearing mammal keepers

This applies to you if you work in keeping furbearing mammals for breeding or the fur trade.

Special rules or exemptions

You are not entitled to:

  • daily and weekly limits on hours of work
  • daily rest periods
  • time off between shifts
  • weekly/bi-weekly rest periods
  • eating periods
  • overtime pay
  • public holidays or public holiday pay