Are you an Ontario farmer employer navigating the complexity of
the special farm worker rules? The second blog post in this series
will outline who qualifies as a 'farm worker' for the
purpose of farm worker exemptions.
Although the Employment Standards Act
("ESA") outlines standards of protection
for workers, there are some industries wherein workers are exempt
from these protections. ESA farming exemptions, for example,
recognize that employers in farming and food production have unique
demands from their workers because of variabilities such as weather
conditions, the time of year, the availability of workers, or the
amount of daylight available, among other things.
So, who does the ESA recognize as a farm worker? Under the ESA
and its regulations, a farm worker is defined as "a person
employed on a farm whose employment is directly related to the
primary production of eggs, milk, grain, seeds, fruit, vegetables,
maple products, honey, tobacco, herbs, pigs,
