Act respecting labour standards Chapter VII - Penal provisions (Section 139 to 147)

Legal person

If a legal person or a representative, mandatary or employee of a legal person, partnership or association without legal personality commits an offence under this Act or its regulations, the directors or officers of the legal person, partnership or association without legal personality are presumed to have committed the offence unless it is established that they exercised due diligence, taking all necessary precautions to prevent the offence.

For the purposes of this section, in the case of a partnership, all partners, except special partners, are presumed to be directors of the partnership unless there is evidence to the contrary appointing one or more of them, or a third person, to manage the affairs of the partnership. 

1979, c. 45, s. 142; 1999, c. 40, s. 196. 2018, c. 21, s. 49.

Interpretation

The natural persons associated with a company, whether they act as head, director, employee or agent of the company, are presumed to themselves have committed the offence committed by the company, its representative, mandatary or employee. However, this presumption may be overcome by demonstrating that they exercised due diligence, that is, that they took all necessary precautions to prevent the offence.

For example, should an employee of a company prohibit access to a person designated by the Commission to make an inspection (s. 109 ALS), the head or director will be presumed to have himself or herself committed this offence, subject to applicable defences.

A presumption also applies to partners in a partnership, who are presumed to be directors of the partnership barring demonstration that one or more persons have in fact been appointed to manage the affairs of the partnership