Ontario HR Compliance · CLC Part III (labour standards)
Breaks and Rest Periods (CLC Part III)
Federal employees get an unpaid 30-minute break every 5 consecutive hours of work, at least 8 consecutive hours of rest between work periods, and unpaid medical or nursing breaks where needed.
Every employee is entitled to an unpaid break of at least 30 minutes during every period of 5 consecutive hours of work. If the employer requires the employee to stay at its disposal during that break — on call, at their workstation, unable to leave — the break must be paid.
Employees are also entitled to a rest period of at least 8 consecutive hours between work periods.
Where an employee needs a break for medical reasons, the employer must provide an unpaid medical break; a medical certificate can be required to support it. Nursing employees are entitled to unpaid breaks to nurse or express milk.
This is general information, not legal advice; confirm how these entitlements apply to a specific schedule before relying on them.
Source: Canada Labour Code, Part III ·
Also: Government of Canada — Federal labour standards: hours of work
Last reviewed .
Confidence: Verified
Related notes
- Federal Minimum Wage (CLC Part III) — The federal minimum wage resets every April 1, indexed to the prior year's CPI and rounded up to the nearest $0.05, and an employer must pay the higher of the federal rate or the applicable provincial rate where the employee works.
- Hours of Work and Overtime (CLC Part III) — Standard federal hours are 8 a day and 40 a week, overtime is at least 1.5 times the regular rate beyond that, and a handful of exemptions and averaging arrangements can change the calculation.
- Annual Vacation (CLC Part III) — Federal vacation entitlement is tiered by continuous service — 2 weeks/4% after 1 year, 3 weeks/6% after 5 years, 4 weeks/8% after 10 years — a richer scale than Ontario's, which has no statutory 4-week tier.
- General (Statutory) Holidays (CLC Part III) — Federal employees get 10 general holidays, one more than Ontario's 9, because the federal list adds the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Remembrance Day.
- Recordkeeping (CLC Part III) — Federal employers must keep hours and wage records for 36 months, paid-medical-leave records for 3 years, and the required averaging and holiday-substitution notices — recordkeeping failures are a designated AMP violation.
- Federal vs. Ontario Jurisdiction: The Employment-Law "Instead Of" Rule — A federally regulated employer follows the Canada Labour Code and related federal statutes in place of Ontario employment law, not on top of it — the federal regime replaces the ESA, OHSA, Human Rights Code, AODA and Pay Equity Act rather than adding to them.
- Paid Medical Leave (CLC Part III, s.239) — Every federally regulated employee accrues up to 10 days of paid medical leave a year regardless of employer size, a right added to the Canada Labour Code effective December 1, 2022.