Body
Why following the student hiring process matters
Hiring a student involves more than extending a job offer. Until the student has accepted the offer and completed all required pre-boarding activities, they are not fully employed in the University's HR system. Allowing work to begin before this process is complete creates significant risk for the employee, the supervisor, the department, and the University.
This guide outlines the principal areas of risk and the responsibilities of supervisors and departments in preventing them.
1. Employment Standards Act, 2000 (“ESA”) Compliance
Under Ontario employment law, employees must be paid for all hours worked. Moreover, the University is required to establish and communicate to the student, prior to their start date, a regular, recurring payday and pay the student on that schedule. If a student begins working before being hired properly, the University is still legally obligated to pay them, yet delays in processing the hire can delay payroll and ultimately, payment to the employee. Failure to pay the student on time may expose the University to complaints under the ESA.
Even where the delay was caused by the department, HR or Payroll must still resolve the issue after the fact, often through emergency processing. The risk level in this area is high.
What the legislation says
Employment Standards Act, 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 41, s. 11(1) — Payment of wages
An employer shall establish a recurring pay period and a recurring pay day and shall pay all wages earned during each pay period, other than accruing vacation pay, no later than the pay day for that period.
Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 1(1) — Definition of "employee"
"Employee" includes, (a) a person, including an officer of a corporation, who performs work for an employer for wages, (b) a person who supplies services to an employer for wages, (c) a person who receives training from a person who is an employer, if the skill in which the person is being trained is a skill used by the employer’s employees, or (d) a person who is a homeworker, and includes a person who was an employee.
Note that the definition captures a person who performs work or receives training — it does not depend on whether the hiring process has been completed in the HR system.
Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 5.1 — Prohibition on misclassification
Since November 27, 2017, the Act prohibits an employer from treating an individual who is an employee as if that person were not an employee under the Act.
This is a summary of the provision rather than a quotation. The Ontario Labour Relations Board has repeatedly held that employee status is a question of fact and law determined by the substance of the relationship — the presence, absence, or wording of paperwork does not decide it.
Read together, these provisions mean that the obligation to pay is triggered by the performance of work, not by the completion of administrative steps. Where a student performs work, wages are earned and must be paid by the pay day for the period in which they were earned. A delay in processing the hire does not suspend that obligation; it simply makes it harder to meet.
Records the University must be able to produce
Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 15(1) — Records
An employer shall record the following information with respect to each employee … 3. The date on which the employee began his or her employment. 3.1 The dates and times that the employee worked. … 4. The number of hours the employee worked in each day and each week.
Records under s. 15 must generally be retained for three years (s. 15(5)) and must be readily available for inspection by an employment standards officer (s. 16). Work performed before a student is entered into the HR system is, by definition, work for which these records were not created contemporaneously.
Enforcement
An employee may file a complaint with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, and an employment standards officer may investigate, inspect payroll records, and issue orders to pay. Where an officer finds a contravention of the ESA, prescribed monetary penalties currently begin at $250 for a first contravention, multiplied by the number of employees affected, rising to $500 for a second contravention and $5,000 for a third within a three-year period, each likewise multiplied by the number of employees affected.
An important limitation
Not every student who performs work at a university is covered by the ESA. Section 3(5) of the Act excludes, among others, an individual who performs work under a program approved by a college of applied arts and technology or a university, and a secondary school student performing work under an authorized work experience program. Whether a particular student placement falls inside or outside the ESA is a fact-specific question. Departments should not assume that a given arrangement is exempt — that determination belongs to Human Resources in consultation with legal counsel, and the safe course in every case is to complete the hiring process before work begins.
2. Working Without a Legal Employment Relationship
Until the job offer is accepted, all required approvals are complete, and pre-boarding documentation has been submitted, there is no completed employment relationship within UWP. This leaves fundamental terms unsettled: employment status, employment terms, start date, pay rate, reporting relationship, and funding source may all be uncertain.
From a governance perspective, no individual should begin work before their employment has been formally established.
3. WSIB and Workplace Injury Risk
If a student is injured on their first day before their employment has been finalized, significant questions may arise regarding employment status, reporting obligations, insurance coverage, and workplace documentation.
Although employers still have obligations whenever someone performs work, beginning work before proper hiring increases administrative complexity and institutional risk. Potential consequences include delayed incident reporting, investigations, additional legal exposure, and audit concerns.
What the legislation says
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, S.O. 1997, c. 16, Sch. A, s. 21(1) — Employer’s duty to report
An employer shall notify the Board within three days after learning of an accident to a worker employed by him, her or it if the accident necessitates health care or results in the worker not being able to earn full wages.
WSIB Operational Policy 15-01-02 applies a three-business-day deadline for filing the employer’s report (Form 7). Failure to comply with the reporting obligation is an offence under the Act, and the WSIB may levy penalties for late or incomplete reporting.
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, s. 13(1) — Entitlement to benefits
A worker who sustains a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his or her employment is entitled to benefits under the insurance plan.
The three-day clock begins when the employer learns of the accident. It does not begin when the hire is finally processed. If a student is injured before their employment has been entered into the system, the University must still identify the accident, determine the employment relationship, gather wage and hour information that may not yet exist in any system, and file within the same deadline — all while reconstructing facts after the event rather than drawing on existing records.
4. Occupational Health and Safety Risks
Before beginning work, students may be required to complete mandatory health and safety requirements, such as:
- General workplace orientation
- Workplace Violence and Harassment training
- WHMIS training
- Laboratory, biosafety, or radiation safety training, where applicable
- Safe operation of equipment and machinery
- Ergonomic assessments for office work
- Emergency evacuation procedures
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) training
- Department-specific safety procedures
Allowing students to begin work before these requirements are completed increases the University's health and safety risk, may result in preventable injuries or incidents, or fines.
Injury due to lack of training
A student who has not completed required safety training may improperly operate laboratory equipment, misuse chemicals, lift materials incorrectly, or use power tools unsafely — suffering preventable injuries simply because they were unaware of safe work procedures. The consequences can include a workplace injury, a WSIB claim, lost time from work, and an incident investigation.
Failure to use required PPE
Without proper orientation, a student may not know when personal protective equipment is required — safety glasses, gloves, lab coats, respirators, hearing protection, or steel-toed footwear. This increases the likelihood of injury and exposure to workplace hazards.
Exposure to hazardous materials
Students working in laboratories, research facilities, maintenance areas, engineering shops, or science departments may work around chemicals, biological agents, compressed gases, radioactive materials, or hazardous waste. Without appropriate training, they may unknowingly expose themselves or others to serious hazards.
Emergency response risks
Students who have not received workplace orientation may not know evacuation routes, emergency exits, assembly locations, how to report an incident, who to contact in an emergency, or where first aid equipment is located. This places both the student and others at greater risk during an emergency.
Increased risk to others
Health and safety risks do not affect only the student. An untrained student may unintentionally injure a coworker, expose others to hazardous materials, damage research or laboratory equipment, compromise research integrity, or create unsafe conditions for faculty, staff, students, or visitors.
Supervisory liability
Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that employees are adequately trained and informed of workplace hazards before work begins. Allowing a student to start work before completing required safety training may expose the department to internal investigations, Ministry of Labour inspections, corrective actions, and increased liability if an incident occurs.
OHSA compliance
Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act imposes duties on the University as employer and, separately and personally, on supervisors. These duties attach to anyone who meets the Act’s definition of a worker, and they are not deferred until the hiring paperwork is complete.
Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1, s. 25(2) — Duties of employers
Without limiting the strict duty imposed by subsection (1), an employer shall, (a) provide information, instruction and supervision to a worker to protect the health or safety of the worker; … (d) acquaint a worker or a person in authority over a worker with any hazard in the work and in the handling, storage, use, disposal and transport of any article, device, equipment or a biological, chemical or physical agent; … (h) take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker.
Occupational Health and Safety Act, s. 27 — Duties of supervisors
A supervisor shall ensure that a worker, (a) works in the manner and with the protective devices, measures and procedures required by this Act and the regulations; and (b) uses or wears the equipment, protective devices or clothing that the worker’s employer requires to be used or worn. … Without limiting the duty imposed by subsection (1), a supervisor shall, (a) advise a worker of the existence of any potential or actual danger to the health or safety of the worker of which the supervisor is aware; … and (c) take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker.
A supervisor is defined in s. 1(1) as a person who has charge of a workplace or authority over a worker. The title a person holds is irrelevant; anyone directing a student’s work meets this definition and carries these duties personally.
Occupational Health and Safety Act, O. Reg. 297/13 — Health and Safety Awareness and Training
Employers must ensure that workers and supervisors complete a basic occupational health and safety awareness training program meeting the prescribed requirements.
This is a paraphrase of the regulation’s requirement, not a quotation. Awareness training is in addition to, not a substitute for, workplace-specific and hazard-specific training such as WHMIS, laboratory, or equipment training.
Penalties under the OHSA
The Ministry may prosecute any person for a contravention of the Act or the regulations. On conviction, the Act currently provides for fines of up to $2,000,000 for a corporation; up to $1,500,000 and/or up to twelve months’ imprisonment for a director or officer of a corporation; and up to $500,000 and/or up to twelve months’ imprisonment for any other person, which includes an individual supervisor. Where a corporation is convicted of a second or subsequent offence resulting in the death or serious injury of one or more workers within a two-year period, a minimum fine of $500,000 applies.
The significance for departments is that OHSA liability is personal as well as institutional. A supervisor who permits a student to begin work before the required information, instruction and training have been provided is exposed in their own right, not merely as a representative of the University.
Health and safety begins before a student's first shift — not after it. A student may only work one shift before an incident occurs. Waiting until “later this week” to complete orientation or required training may already be too late if an injury or emergency happens on the first day. Pre-boarding and safety requirements must be completed before any work begins.
5. Eligibility To Work In Canada
The student hiring process includes verifying that international students are legally authorized to work in Canada before employment begins. This means confirming a valid Social Insurance Number (SIN) where required, a valid study or work permit as applicable, that any work authorization conditions or restrictions are met, and that required immigration documents have not expired.
Allowing a student to begin working before these checks are completed creates the risk that the University could unknowingly employ someone who is not authorized to work, or whose authorization has expired. The potential consequences include:
- Unauthorized employment. If a student's work authorization has expired or its conditions are no longer met, the University may inadvertently permit unauthorized work.
- Non-compliance with federal requirements. Canadian employers are expected to take reasonable steps to confirm that employees are legally entitled to work in Canada. Failure to do so may result in regulatory scrutiny or enforcement action.
- Administrative Monetary Penalties (AMPs). Under Canada's employer compliance regime, employers that hire or continue to employ individuals who are not authorized to work may face administrative monetary penalties.
- Government investigations or audits. Employment records may be reviewed during federal inspections. Incomplete or missing documentation makes it harder to demonstrate that eligibility checks were completed before work commenced.
- Reputational risk. As a publicly funded institution, the University is expected to demonstrate strong compliance with employment and immigration requirements. Findings of non-compliance could affect its standing with students, regulators, funding agencies, and the broader community.
A note on international students
A scenario particularly relevant to universities arises when a student graduates and their study permit no longer authorizes work under the same conditions; takes a leave of absence or is no longer enrolled, affecting their eligibility to work; reaches the expiry date of their study or work permit; or changes immigration status without notifying the employer.
Without pre-boarding verification, a department may not realize that a student's work authorization has changed before allowing them to start or continue working. The hiring process ensures these requirements are reviewed before employment begins; bypassing it risks permitting work when authorization has expired or its conditions are not met.
Hiring first and verifying later is not an option. Before a student begins work, the University must confirm that they are legally authorized to work in Canada and that all required immigration documentation is valid. Skipping these checks exposes both the department and the University to compliance, legal, and reputational risks.
What the legislation says
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27, s. 124(1)(c) — Contravention
Every person commits an offence who … employs a foreign national in a capacity in which the foreign national is not authorized under this Act to be employed.
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, s. 124(2) — Deemed knowledge
For the purposes of paragraph (1)(c), a person who fails to exercise due diligence to determine whether employment is authorized under this Act is deemed to know that it is not authorized.
Section 124(2) is the provision departments most need to understand. An employer cannot answer a charge under s. 124(1)(c) by saying it did not know the student was unauthorized. If the employer failed to exercise due diligence, the law deems it to have known. Pre-boarding verification of the SIN, study or work permit, and any conditions or expiry dates is precisely the due diligence the statute contemplates. Completing that verification before work begins is not an administrative formality — it is the University’s defence.
Administrative monetary penalties
Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227, s. 209.95(1) — Violations
An employer referred to in subsection 209.2(1) or 209.3(1) who fails to comply with one of the conditions set out in the provisions listed in column 1 of Table 1 of Schedule 2 … commits a violation and (a) is liable to an administrative monetary penalty of an amount that is determined in accordance with section 209.98 … and (b) if applicable, is ineligible to employ a foreign national for whom a work permit is required for the period determined in accordance with section 209.99.
Administrative monetary penalties under this regime range from $500 to $100,000 per violation, subject to an annual maximum. Consequences may also include temporary or permanent ineligibility to employ foreign nationals and publication of the employer’s name on a public government list of non-compliant employers.
For a university, the ineligibility and publication consequences are frequently more damaging than the monetary penalty. A period of ineligibility would affect the institution’s ability to employ foreign nationals across every faculty and department, not only the unit where the non-compliance occurred.
6. Payroll Risks
When students start working before being hired, HR must often perform manual corrections — emergency hires, retroactive effective dates, payroll adjustments, off-cycle payments, manual calculations, and timecard corrections. These interventions significantly increase the likelihood of payroll errors, duplicate payments, incorrect tax deductions, overpayments, and underpayments. Every manual intervention increases institutional risk.
Each correction also carries an administrative burden, typically requiring coordination among Workforce Services, Payroll, HRIS, Finance (where funding adjustments are required), department administrators, and supervisors. Time spent correcting preventable issues reduces capacity to support other employees and strategic HR initiatives.
7. Financial Risks
Delayed hiring can result in retroactive payroll processing, unexpected labour costs, grant funding issues, incorrect costing, payroll corrections, and additional HR administrative effort. Departments often underestimate the hidden costs of fixing preventable hiring issues.
Payroll systems are designed to process routine transactions accurately and consistently. Every manual workaround bypasses one or more built-in controls, increasing the likelihood of errors, additional administrative work, audit findings, and delays in employee pay. When a student starts work before they are properly hired, the issue doesn't disappear — it shifts the burden to Workforce Services, Payroll, HRIS, and Finance to manually correct what should have been an automated process. Preventing these situations protects both the student and the integrity of the University's payroll and HR systems.
8. Audit and Compliance Risks
The University is expected to demonstrate that every employee was approved before beginning work, accepted the employment offer, completed required onboarding, and was hired through approved business processes. Missing documentation can create findings during internal audits, external audits, government reviews, and grant audits. Proper documentation protects both the department and the institution.
Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 16 — Availability of records
An employer shall ensure that all of the records and documents required to be retained under sections 15 and 15.1 are readily available for inspection as required by an employment standards officer even if the employer has arranged for another person to retain them.
The obligation is to produce records promptly on request. Records reconstructed after the fact, or created to fill a gap left by work performed before hire, are weaker evidence of compliance than records generated contemporaneously through the standard process.
9. Reputational Risk
Few things damage a student's first impression of the University more than working for weeks without pay, uncertainty about their employment, confusion about the hiring process, or repeated requests for missing paperwork. Students who have poor onboarding experiences often share them with classmates and on social media. Following the process contributes to a positive employee experience.
10. Supervisor Accountability
Managers and supervisors are responsible for ensuring that no work begins before employment is finalized, that hours worked are accurate, that timecards are reviewed promptly, and that payroll deadlines are met. Approving timecards is a critical payroll responsibility, not an administrative courtesy — late approvals directly delay employee pay.
Delayed pay
If timecards are not approved by the published payroll deadline, students will not receive payment on the expected pay date, and payment is delayed until the following payroll cycle unless exceptional arrangements can be made. For many students, these wages pay for tuition, rent, transportation, groceries, and books. A missed payroll can create significant financial hardship.
Increased payroll administration
Late approvals generate additional work for HR, Payroll, and Workforce Services — urgent emails, payroll inquiries, manual investigations, retroactive corrections, and exception processing. These activities consume resources that could otherwise support strategic work.
Employee relations
Repeated late payments reduce confidence in supervisors, departments, HR, Payroll, and the University as a whole, and frequently result in increased complaints, lower engagement, reduced trust, and a poorer student employment experience.
Best Practices for Supervisors
Never allow a student to begin work before they have accepted their offer, completed all required pre-boarding tasks, and received confirmation that they are ready to start.
Monitor pending job offers regularly.
Encourage students to complete onboarding immediately.
Review and approve timecards before each payroll deadline.
Plan ahead for vacations or absences by arranging alternate approvers where appropriate.
Contact Talent & Workforce Services immediately if a hiring issue is identified.
Key Takeaway
If a student is working, they should already be hired. Proper hiring before work begins protects the student, the supervisor, the department, and the University. It ensures legal compliance, timely pay, accurate records, and a positive employment experience while reducing institutional risk.
A note on employment law: under Ontario employment law, whether someone is an employee depends on the reality of the working relationship, not just the paperwork. If the University allows someone to perform work, employment obligations—including consequences for not following the law—can arise even if the hiring process was not completed.
Students must not begin work until they have accepted their offer and completed all required pre-boarding activities. Allowing work to begin beforehand creates unnecessary legal, payroll, health and safety, and compliance risks for both the department and the University.
Appendix: Legislative References
The provisions quoted in this guide are reproduced from the following sources. Statutes and regulations are amended from time to time; before relying on any provision, confirm the current wording on the official source noted below, or seek guidance from HR.
Provincial
Employment Standards Act, 2000, S.O. 2000, c. 41 — sections 1(1), 3(5), 5.1, 11(1), 15, 16. Official version: Ontario e-Laws, Employment Standards Act
Occupational Health and Safety Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.1 — sections 1(1), 25, 27, 66. Official version: Ontario e-Laws, Occupational Health and Safety Act See also O. Reg. 297/13 (Health and Safety Awareness and Training).
Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, S.O. 1997, c. 16, Sch. A — sections 13(1), 21(1). Official version: Workplace Safety and Insurance Act See also WSIB Operational Policy 15-01-02, Employers’ Initial Accident-Reporting Obligations.
Federal
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, S.C. 2001, c. 27 — section 124. Official version: Justice Laws Website, Justice Laws
Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227 — sections 209.2 to 209.997. Official version: Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations
A note on the use of this guide
This guide is an internal governance and awareness document. It summarizes selected legal obligations to explain why the student hiring process exists and why it must be followed; it is not legal advice and is not a complete statement of the University’s obligations under any statute. Quoted provisions have been excerpted, and omissions within quotations are marked. Where a specific situation raises a compliance question — including whether a particular student placement is covered by or excluded from the Employment Standards Act — departments should contact Talent & Workforce Services, who will consult Labour or legal counsel as required. For clarity, nothing in this policy forms part of the student’s employment contract with the University.