Temporary help agencies – IPG - 123

Prohibition

Effective October 20, 2026, an employer that is a temporary help agency is prohibited from:

• charging a fee to a person in connection with them becoming its employee
• charging a fee to its employee for assigning or attempting to assign them to perform work for a client
• charging a fee to its employee for any assignment or job preparation services, including assisting in creating resumes or preparing for job interviews
• charging a fee to its employee for establishing an employment relationship with one of its clients

If an employee of a temporary help agency (the employer) pays a fee as described above, the employer must pay to the employee an amount equal to that fee.

The employer who is a temporary help agency is also prohibited from:

• charging a fee to a client for establishing an employment relationship with an employee. However, this prohibition does not apply if the time between the employee's first assignment with the client and the day the client hires the employee is six months or less
• preventing or attempting to prevent an employee from establishing an employment relationship with a client

These prohibitions apply to any type of fee, including one-time fees charged directly to an employee, lump sums, percentages deducted from an employee's pay, or any other form of fee charged for these purposes.

Temporary help agencies subject to these provisions

For Division VI.1 to apply to a temporary help agency, two conditions must be met:

1. The temporary help agency must be the real employer

The temporary help agency creates a "tripartite" relationship consisting of:

• the employee
• the temporary help agency (employer), and
• the client business that uses the temporary help agency's services

To determine whether the temporary help agency is the real employer, the Labour Program will use the method described in IPG-068 - Determining the "Real Employer".

2. The temporary help agency must be federally regulated

Once it has been established that the temporary help agency is the real employer of the employee, the Labour Program must determine whether the temporary help agency is subject to federal or provincial labour standards.

Where required, the Labour Program will conduct an investigation to determine under which jurisdiction the temporary help agency falls.

Complaint to claim prohibited fees

If an employee of a temporary help agency was required to pay prohibited fees, they may file a complaint with the Labour Program to recover an amount equal to the fees, provided that an employer/employee relationship existed at the time the fees were paid.

Such a monetary complaint can only be filed by an employee or former employee of a federally regulated temporary help agency.

Equal treatment provisions

The Code prohibits an employer that is a temporary help agency from paying its employee a rate of wages that is less than the rate the client pays to its own employee if they:

• work in the same industrial establishment
• perform substantially the same kind of work
• perform work that requires substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility
• work under similar working conditions and
• meet any other factor that may be prescribed in the regulations

Currently, there is only one factor prescribed in the regulations: the temporary help agency's employee and the client's employee must be paid the same type of rate of wages for the performance of a job function (for example, both have a wage rate based on time worked).

A client is prohibited from reducing its own employee's rate of wages to enable the employer to comply with the equal treatment requirement.

The Code provides for exceptions if the difference in employees' rates of wages is due to a system based on:

1. (a) seniority
2. (b) merit
3. (c) the quantity or quality of each employee's production or
4. (d) any other criterion that may be prescribed by regulation

The system in question:

• is a system that was established by the client that utilizes the temporary help agency's services
• must apply to all employees whose rates of pay are comparable; and
• must have had its particulars communicated in writing to an employee who performs a work assignment for the client or be readily available for examination by that employee

For more information, see Equal Treatment IPG-122, which also applies to temporary help agency employees.