Réglementation
Qui la réglemente, et ce qui est attendu
Les détails réglementaires et les données de recherche de cette page sont présentés en anglais.
Professional services firms are provincially regulated employers, and the striking feature of that regime is how little it protects your professionals. In Ontario, architects, lawyers and public accountants are exempt outright from the hours of work, rest, eating period and overtime standards, and managers and supervisors are exempt from all but eating periods. Federally, the Canada Labor Code excludes the architectural, dental, engineering, legal and medical professions from its hours rules. What binds you without exception is the duty to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances, and the duty to accommodate a diagnosed sleep disorder.
Qui la réglemente
Provincial regulators oversee your firm - in Ontario the Ministry of Labor under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and Employment Standards Act, with the Human Rights Tribunal and the WSIB, and equivalent bodies elsewhere. Law societies and CPA bodies treat workload and capacity as professional conduct and competence issues, not workplace safety law; their rules neither displace your safety duty nor reduce your exposure.
Vos obligations
Take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect your people, and in Ontario keep a written health and safety policy reviewed at least annually where more than five workers are regularly employed. Accommodate a diagnosed sleep disorder to the point of undue hardship. Statutory hours limits will not do this work for you: Ontario exempts architects, lawyers and public accountants from hours, rest, eating period and overtime standards, and managers and supervisors from most of them. If you had 25 or more Ontario employees on 1 January, a written policy on disconnecting from work must be in place before 1 March that year.
Conséquences
Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act carries fines of up to $2,000,000 for a corporation, $1,500,000 for a director or officer and $500,000 for any other individual, the last two with up to 12 months' imprisonment. Failing to accommodate a diagnosed sleep disorder is decided separately by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, which can order lost wages, reinstatement and damages for injury to dignity. The disconnecting-from-work policy is the weak link: the Act does not dictate its content, and the policy itself is enforceable only where it grants more than an existing employment standard - so a thin policy attracts no penalty and gives your people no protection.
Sanctions
Ontario maximums in force in 2026: under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, $2,000,000 for a corporation, $1,500,000 for a director or officer and $500,000 for any other individual, with a $500,000 minimum fine for a repeat corporate offence causing death or serious injury within two years. Employment standards penalties run $250 per affected employee, then $500, then $5,000 for repeats within three years. Ontario's maximums are the highest in Canada.
Antécédents
No Canadian court, coroner, investigator or regulator has published a finding linking fatigue to an incident in professional services. The duty to manage fatigue still sits within the general duty in federal and provincial occupational health and safety law.
Sources: Ontario Employment Standards Act guide (professional and managerial exemptions, hours of work, disconnecting from work, enforcement); Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act s.66 and ministry guide; Canada Labour Code hours of work exclusions.