Employees cannot work more than 5 consecutive hours without a 30-minute unpaid meal break. The break can be split into two shorter breaks (e.g., two 15-minute breaks) if both parties agree, but the total must equal 30 minutes.
Ontario's Stance on Breaks In Ontario—the Canadian province with the highest number of full-time workers—the Employment Standards Act (ESA) mandates that most employees must be granted a 30-minute break, or eating period, for every five consecutive hours of work.
Meal breaks lasting 30 minutes or longer can be unpaid, so long as employees don't work during that time. Employers are not required to give rest breaks. Employees working 6 or more consecutive hours must receive a 30-minute meal break.
In most states, breaks are required by law. The employer has to, by law, enforce that employees take those breaks. If they fail to do so, it opens them up to very expensive lawsuits. I recall a decade or two back, The Gap has a massive settlement in the state of California over employees working through breaks.
Rest breaks must also be spaced out so that they fall in the middle of each work period. This means if employees work 8 hour shifts, they should have one rest break before their meal break and the second rest break afterwards.
Rest breaks if you're over 18 If you work for more than 6 hours a day, you're entitled to an uninterrupted rest break of at least 20 minutes - for example a tea or lunch break. You must be allowed to take it during the day rather than at the beginning or end.
For an 8-hour shift in Ontario: Employees are entitled to one 30-minute break under the ESA for an 8-hour shift. Another break is not required until after another five hours. For a 12-hour shift in Ontario: Employers must provide two 30-minute breaks during a 12-hour shift, with one break every five hours of work.
In Ontario—the Canadian province with the highest number of full-time workers—the Employment Standards Act (ESA) mandates that most employees must be granted a 30-minute break, or eating period, for every five consecutive hours of work. During a 10-hour shift, employees can take a second 30-minute break.
Sure, you can! If you complain loudly about you boss's instructions in front of your coworkers, for example, you could be deemed guilty of insubordination, which qualifies you for termination, in most companies; particularly, if you've been warned before.
Workers, however, have the power to protect their health and safety. Ontario law spells out the three rights that give workers this power: the right to know, the right to participate, and the right to refuse. Workers have the right to know about workplace health and safety hazards.