Are Employers Liable for Injuries When Employees Work From Home?

Employer liability runs through workers’ compensation, not a lawsuit

Generally yes, employers carry liability for home-office injuries, but in Ontario and Alberta that liability is channelled through the no-fault workers’ compensation system rather than a personal injury lawsuit. Under Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, employers pay into an accident insurance fund and, in exchange, get protection from being sued for work-related injuries; workers need only show the injury was work-related, not that the employer was at fault (Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, SO 1997, c 16, Sched A). Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Act works the same way: a worker’s right to benefits does not depend on who was at fault for the accident (Workers’ Compensation Act, RSA 2000, c W-15).

For federally regulated employers (banks, airlines, telecommunications, and similar sectors), the Canada Labour Code imposes a direct duty: “Every employer shall ensure that the health and safety at work of every person employed by the employer is protected” (Canada Labour Code, RSC 1985, c L-2, s 124). That duty is not written to apply only inside a fixed office.

Why a home office doesn’t switch off the employer’s OHS duty

Three separate legal routes confirm that working from home does not remove an employer’s occupational health and safety (OHS) obligations, the statutory duties employers owe to keep a workplace safe:

• Federally, section 125(1) of the Canada Labour Code extends employer duties to “every work activity carried out by an employee in a work place that is not controlled by the employer… to the extent that the employer controls the activity.” A home office is exactly this kind of location: not controlled by the employer, but the work activity within it may still be.
• In Ontario, the Occupational Health and Safety Act generally excludes work carried out in a private residence, but it explicitly carves telework back in: the exclusion applies “with the exception of telework performed in or about a private residence” (Occupational Health and Safety Act, RSO 1990, c O.1, s 3(1), (1.1)). In plain terms, a private residence is normally outside the Act’s reach, except when the work being done there is telework.
• In Alberta, the government has issued specific guidance (bulletin LI028) addressing how the province’s OHS legislation applies “in situations where workers are working from home,” which signals that OHS obligations are not treated as automatically absent just because the workspace is a residence.

None of the fact sources located an Alberta statutory carve-in as explicit as Ontario’s section 3(1.1). Alberta’s position rests on the guidance bulletin rather than a parallel legislative provision.

What actually decides whether a home injury is compensable

Liability through workers’ compensation is not automatic just because the injury happened during work hours at the kitchen table. Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Act defines a compensable “accident” as one that “arises out of and occurs in the course of employment” (Workers’ Compensation Act, RSA 2000, c W-15, s 1(1)(a)). Ontario’s system and the federal OHS framework are built around the same two-part idea, captured federally as preventing injuries “arising out of, linked with or occurring in the course of employment” (Canada Labour Code, RSC 1985, c L-2, s 122.1).

That two-part test matters because it’s not enough for an injury to occur during the workday; it has to be connected to the work itself. A repetitive strain injury from hours at a laptop, or a fall while retrieving a work laptop from another room, points toward employment. An injury from a purely personal errand taken on a work-from-home lunch break points away from it. Where exactly that line falls in a specific case is a fact-specific determination made by WSIB (Ontario) or WCB (Alberta), not something this article can predict.

What you can do next

An employee injured while working from home, and an employer facing a claim, both interact with the same no-fault system rather than the courts:

1. Report the injury to the employer as soon as possible, the same as for an injury at a conventional worksite.
2. File a claim with WSIB in Ontario or WCB in Alberta; for federally regulated workplaces, the relevant federal OHS and compensation processes apply instead.
3. Expect the “arising out of and in the course of employment” test to be the central question the compensation board asks, not who was careless.
4. For federally regulated employers, review whether the specific work activity being done at home is one the employer directs or controls, since that is the trigger for Canada Labour Code duties under section 125(1).

Because the compensation boards, not the courts, generally decide these claims, formal legal advice is most useful where a claim is denied, where fault or jurisdiction is disputed, or where an employer is federally regulated and the applicable framework is less familiar.