Federal or provincial: which Canadian employment law applies?
Most Canadian employers follow the employment standards law of the province or territory where the employee works. Only federally regulated industries, such as banks, telecoms and cross-border transport, follow the Canada Labour Code instead. Where the employee lives, where your head office is and where wages are paid do not decide it.
Quebec francization now reaches businesses with 25 to 49 staff
What happened
Since 1 June 2025, every business with 25 to 49 employees in Quebec must register with the Office québécois de la langue française to begin the francization process. This applies to federally regulated businesses too.
What it means for you
Falling under the Canada Labour Code does not take a Quebec workplace outside Quebec's language rules. An employer with staff in Quebec needs French-language contracts and written communications, whichever labour law applies.
Source: Office québécois de la langue française. We check this page every week. Last checked .
Employment law in Canada is split between two levels of government. The federal Canada Labour Code governs employment in federally regulated industries: banks, telecommunications, broadcasting, air transportation, railways, trucking and buses that cross provincial or international borders, interprovincial shipping and pipelines, postal and courier services, grain elevators and mills, uranium mining, most federal Crown corporations, and any business that is vital, essential or integral to one of these. Everyone else, which is most private employers, is governed by the employment standards law of the province or territory where the employee's work is performed: Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000, British Columbia's Employment Standards Act, Alberta's Employment Standards Code, Quebec's Act respecting labour standards, and so on. The test is the nature of the employer's business and the place of work. It is not where the employee lives, where the employer is incorporated or headquartered, or where wages are paid. Quebec also sits on a civil law foundation (the Civil Code of Québec) rather than the common law used in the other provinces, and its Charter of the French Language applies to workplaces in Quebec regardless of which labour code governs them.
How do I know if my business is federally regulated?
Check whether your business is on the Government of Canada's list of federally regulated industries. The main ones are banks, telecommunications, broadcasting, air transportation, railways and road transport that cross provincial or international borders, interprovincial shipping, ports and pipelines, postal and courier services, and most federal Crown corporations. A business that is vital, essential or integral to one of these can also be federal. If your business is not on the list, provincial or territorial law applies.
Being a large or national company does not make an employer federally regulated. A software company, retailer or consultancy with staff in several provinces is usually provincially regulated in each province where it has employees. Ontario's policy manual tells officers to presume that employment standards are provincially regulated unless the work or undertaking is federal, and to seek guidance when the answer is unclear.
Which province's law applies to an employee?
The law of the province or territory where the employee's work is performed. Ontario's Employment Standards Act, for example, applies where the employee's work is to be performed in Ontario, or in and outside Ontario where the work outside the province is a continuation of work performed in Ontario.
Ontario's policy and interpretation manual lists factors that do not decide the question: where the employee lives, where the employer's head office is, where wages are paid, and where the employer is incorporated. In one case it summarises, an employee who did almost all of his work in Michigan was not covered by the Ontario Act even though his employer was headquartered in Ontario and his contract chose Ontario law.
What about remote employees in another province?
A remote employee is generally covered by the employment standards of the province where they actually do the work, not the province where your office is. If you hire someone in Ontario who works from home in Alberta, plan on Alberta's Employment Standards Code setting their minimum notice, holidays and pay rules, unless your business is federally regulated.
This means a single employer can be running several sets of minimum standards at once, one for each province where its people work. Payroll registrations, statutory holidays, vacation entitlement and termination minimums all follow the employee's place of work. The contract can give more than the statutory minimum, but it cannot give less than the minimum of the law that applies.
What is different about Quebec?
Quebec uses civil law rather than common law, its minimum standards come from the Act respecting labour standards, and the Charter of the French Language requires an employer to see that any individual employment contract it enters into in writing is drawn up in French, unless both parties expressly choose another language, and to use French in written communications with its staff, unless a worker asks to be written to in another language.
Most of the 2022 amendments to the Charter of the French Language took effect on 1 June 2022. The rules apply to work in Quebec even where the employer is federally regulated, and from 1 June 2025 businesses with 25 to 49 employees must register with the Office québécois de la langue française to start the francization process. The Canada Revenue Agency also applies the Civil Code of Québec, not the common law, when it decides whether a worker whose contract was formed in Quebec is an employee or self-employed.
Hiring in Canada?
What Teamed handles for you across Canada's provinces
Working out which law governs each person is the first thing Teamed does as the legal employer in Canada, because every later duty follows from it: the province of work sets the minimum standards, and Quebec adds its own language rules on top.
These sit with us
- Jurisdiction confirmed for each employee's place of work
- Provincial minimum standards applied province by province
- French-language contracts and written communications for staff in Quebec
- Rules updated when an employee moves to work from another province
You keep
The role, the budget and the day-to-day management of your people. We carry the employment duties that come with being the legal employer.
Jurisdiction follows where the work is done, so a move from one province to another is a change we act on, not a detail we record.
Key figures
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Federally regulated private sector | The Canada Labour Code (Parts I to IV) covers the federally regulated private sector, including air transportation, banks, grain elevators and feed and seed mills, most federal Crown corporations, port services, marine shipping, ferries, tunnels, canals, bridges and pipelines that cross international or provincial borders, postal and courier services, radio and television broadcasting, railways and road transportation that cross provincial or international borders, telecommunications, uranium mining and atomic energy, and any business that is vital, essential or integral to one of these. (source) |
| Everyone else follows provincial or territorial law | Workers outside federal jurisdiction are covered by the employment standards of their province or territory of work. The federal page points provincially regulated employers to their provincial or territorial employment standards office. (source) |
| Ontario ESA territorial test, section 3(1) | The Employment Standards Act, 2000 applies where the employee's work is to be performed in Ontario, or in Ontario and outside Ontario where the work performed outside Ontario is a continuation of work performed in Ontario. (source) |
| Federal employers excluded from the Ontario ESA, section 3(2) | The Ontario Act does not apply where the employment relationship is within the legislative jurisdiction of the Parliament of Canada. Those employers and employees are governed by the Canada Labour Code instead. (source) |
| Factors that do not decide which law applies | Ontario's manual lists where the employee resides, where the employer's head office is, where wages are paid and where the employer is incorporated as factors that are not relevant to whether the Ontario Act applies. (source) |
| Quebec: employment contracts and staff communications in French | Under the Charter of the French Language as amended in 2022, employers must draw up individual employment contracts in French, unless the parties expressly choose another language, and use French in written communications with their staff and the union that represents them, unless a worker asks for another language (art. 41). Most of the 2022 amendments took effect on 1 June 2022, the date the amending law was assented to. (source) |
| Quebec francization for 25 to 49 employees, from 1 June 2025 | Since 1 June 2025, all businesses employing 25 to 49 people in Quebec, including federally regulated businesses, must register with the Office québécois de la langue française to begin the francization process. (source) |
| Quebec contracts assessed under civil law for CPP and EI | When the Canada Revenue Agency decides whether a worker is an employee or self-employed, it applies common law principles to contracts formed outside Quebec and a three-step civil law approach under the Civil Code of Québec to contracts formed in Quebec. (source) |
Frequently asked questions
Does a national company follow the Canada Labour Code?
Not because it is national. The Canada Labour Code applies only to federally regulated industries such as banks, telecoms, air transport and cross-border transport. A company that operates in several provinces but is not in a federal industry follows each province's employment standards law for the people working there.
If my employee lives in one province but my office is in another, whose law applies?
The law of the province where the employee actually performs the work. Ontario's guidance, for example, says the employee's place of residence, the employer's head office, where wages are paid and where the employer is incorporated do not decide whether its Act applies.
Can the employment contract choose which province's law applies?
A contract can choose a governing law for contractual questions, but it cannot remove the statutory minimum standards of the province where the work is done. In one Ontario case, a contract choosing Ontario law did not bring a Michigan-based employee under the Ontario Act.
Do Quebec's French language rules apply to federally regulated employers?
Yes for francization: since 1 June 2025, businesses with 25 to 49 employees in Quebec, including federally regulated ones, must register with the Office québécois de la langue française. Employers in Quebec should also expect to provide written employment contracts and staff communications in French, with limited exceptions where the parties or the worker expressly choose another language.
Canada has fourteen sets of employment standards, one federal and one for each province and territory. When Teamed is your legal employer, we apply the right one for where each person works and update your contracts, policies and payroll as the law changes, so you never have to read a statute to stay compliant.
