Is Your Workplace Federally Regulated?

Most Ontario workplaces are provincially regulated. A workplace is federally regulated when its activities fall within Parliament's legislative authority, such as banking, air transportation, telecommunications, and trucking or rail that crosses provincial or international borders. In the federally regulated private sector, the Canada Labour Code governs labour relations, health and safety and employment standards, and Ontario's Employment Standards Act and Occupational Health and Safety Act do not apply.

Jurisdiction follows the activity, not the address

Ontario's guide to the Employment Standards Act says the Act does not apply to sectors under federal employment law jurisdiction, and the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) explains that only the activities of certain businesses fall under federal jurisdiction.

The main federal sectors

The Government of Canada's list of federally regulated industries includes these private sectors:

• air transportation, including airlines, airports, aerodromes and aircraft operations
• banks, including authorized foreign banks
• telecommunications (telephone, internet, telegraph and cable systems)
• radio and television broadcasting
• postal and courier services
• most federal Crown corporations, such as Canada Post Corporation
• railways that cross provincial or international borders, and some short-line railways
• road transportation services, including trucks and buses, that cross provincial or international borders
• port services, marine shipping, ferries, tunnels, canals, bridges and pipelines (oil and gas) that cross international or provincial borders
• grain elevators, feed and seed mills, feed warehouses and grain-seed cleaning plants
• uranium mining and processing and atomic energy
• certain activities of First Nations band councils and Indigenous self-governments

The list also covers any business "vital, essential or integral" to the operation of one of those activities.

Questions to work through

1. Does the work cross a provincial or international border? For trucking, bus, rail and pipelines, the list largely turns on that, so map where operations run.
2. Is the business vital, essential or integral to a federal operation? Document what it does for that operation. If coverage is unclear, Ontario's health and safety guide invites calls to the Ministry's health and safety information line, and the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) takes calls from anyone unsure of its jurisdiction.
3. Is it a federal Crown corporation or an Indigenous organization? Most federal Crown corporations are covered. For Indigenous businesses in the provinces, the CIRB says labour law complaints and applications generally fall under provincial jurisdiction, but it hears matters involving certain ones, such as band councils, case by case.

What changes once you know the answer

Each of Parts I, II and III of the Code has an Ontario counterpart: the Labour Relations Act, 1995, the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the Employment Standards Act, 2000.

• Labour relations: in most provincially regulated Ontario workplaces, the OLRB hears union certification and unfair labour practice applications under the Labour Relations Act, 1995, which excludes some groups, such as police and employees of colleges of applied arts and technology. In the federally regulated private sector, Part I of the Code governs collective bargaining, strikes and lockouts, and the CIRB certifies bargaining agents.
• Employment standards: Part III of the Code, not Ontario's Employment Standards Act, sets minimum working conditions in the federally regulated private sector, such as hours of work, minimum wages, statutory holidays, annual vacations and leave. Part II and Part III complaints that are not reprisal complaints go first to the federal Labour Program, not the CIRB. On the Ontario side, the OLRB directs non-unionized employees with pay, hours, vacation or termination complaints to the provincial Ministry.
• Unjust dismissal: under Part III, a dismissed employee who has "completed 12 consecutive months of continuous employment by an employer" and is not covered by a collective agreement can complain in writing to the Head of Compliance and Enforcement "within ninety days" of dismissal (extendable in limited cases). Managers are excluded, and the CIRB will not consider complaints after a layoff "because of lack of work or because of the discontinuance of a function", or where another federal redress procedure exists. The CIRB can order compensation, reinstatement or other remedies.
• Health and safety: Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act does not apply to workplaces under federal jurisdiction; Part II of the Code does, requiring employers to protect employees at work and non-employees granted access to the workplace. Both regimes use committees and representatives, but federally regulated employers set them up under Part II.
• Human rights: the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment within federal jurisdiction, including federally regulated companies such as banks, and complaints under it go to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The OLRB directs workplace discrimination complaints to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
• Enforcement: Part IV of the Code adds administrative monetary penalties and public naming of employers for Part II and III violations.

When jurisdiction changes

If a change of activity brings a provincial business under Part I of the Code, or it is sold to an employer subject to Part I, the union remains bargaining agent, the collective agreement continues to apply, and pending labour board proceedings and grievance arbitrations continue under the Code "with such modifications as the circumstances require". The CIRB decides whether a sale or change of activity occurred, and the employer or an affected union can ask it to determine the appropriate bargaining units. Recheck after acquisitions, restructurings and new lines of business.

Before you file

Before filing an application or complaint, confirm the regime: the CIRB asks parties to verify that they are filing with the right organization.

Zamat Workplace Solutions supports employers, unions, boards and growing organizations on provincial and federal labour-relations matters, collective bargaining, collective agreement interpretation and administration, employment agreements and policies, and organizational change. If you are unsure which regime applies, start a conversation.

Frequently asked questions

The content of this site is general information and is not legal advice. Contacting the practice does not create a solicitor-client relationship. Appointment of a mediator or arbitrator is subject to confirmation and conflict screening.