Fired for Refusing Unsafe Work or Raising Safety Concerns in Ontario

Speaking up about a dangerous workplace, or refusing to do a job you believe will get you hurt, should never cost you your livelihood. Ontario law agrees. The Occupational Health and Safety Act gives workers real rights, and it treats punishing someone for using those rights as a serious violation with a burden of proof that lands on the employer.

Do you have the right to refuse unsafe work?

Yes. Section 43 of the OHSA gives most workers the right to refuse work they have reason to believe is likely to endanger themselves or another worker. There is a defined process: you report the refusal to your supervisor, the employer investigates with you and a health-and-safety representative present, and if it is not resolved, a Ministry of Labour inspector is called in to decide. While a valid refusal is being investigated, you generally cannot be forced to do the disputed work, and you cannot be lawfully punished for a good-faith refusal.

Can your employer punish you for it?

No. Section 50 of the OHSA prohibits an employer from dismissing, disciplining, suspending, threatening, or otherwise penalizing a worker for obeying the Act, seeking its enforcement, refusing unsafe work, or giving evidence in a proceeding under it. This is the anti-reprisal protection, and it covers not just a formal work refusal but also raising legitimate safety concerns. Firing you shortly after you spoke up is exactly the kind of timing the law scrutinizes.

The reverse onus: your employer has to prove it was not reprisal

This is the powerful part. Under section 50(5), once you show that you exercised a safety right and were then penalized, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to establish that it did not act for a prohibited reason. In most employment disputes the employee has to prove the employer's wrongdoing; here it is reversed. An employer that cannot convincingly show an unrelated, legitimate reason for the discipline will lose.

What remedies can you get?

You can file a reprisal complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board under section 50(2). The Board has broad remedial power: it can order that you be reinstated to your job, paid the wages you lost, and compensated for the reprisal. That reinstatement remedy is unusual and valuable, since most dismissed employees cannot get their job back. Separately, you can pursue a civil wrongful dismissal claim for severance, and where the employer acted in bad faith, additional damages.

Safety-related dismissals reach the courts

These are not just theoretical protections. In Chandrakumar v. Quality Allied Elevator (2025 ONSC 1528), an employee alleged that his termination was a reprisal for objecting to poor safety standards, while the employer alleged misconduct, the kind of factual fight these cases turn on. And in Barton v. Rona Ontario Inc. (2012 ONSC 3809), a manager dismissed over a workplace-safety incident was still awarded 10 months of pay, a reminder that even where safety is the stated reason, the employer must actually justify a for-cause dismissal or pay proper notice.

What should you do if you were punished for raising safety concerns?

1. 1.Follow the proper refusal process and put your safety concerns in writing so there is a clear record.
2. 2.Keep copies of what you reported, to whom, and when, plus any discipline that followed.
3. 3.Note the timing: discipline soon after you raised a concern is a red flag the law takes seriously.
4. 4.Act quickly. OHSA reprisal complaints have deadlines. A free review can tell you whether to go to the Board, sue, or both.

If your safety concern involved a workplace injury or a WSIB claim, see fired after a workplace injury, which has its own reprisal and re-employment protections. If the cause the employer alleged does not hold up, you are owed your full severance.

About the Author

Daniel Carter

Legal Writer, Mirza Law

Daniel Carter is a legal writer at Mirza Law in Toronto. He writes about layoffs, employment contracts, and the steps to take before you sign anything from your employer.

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