The offer sounds generous on both sides. A student gets lab experience and a certificate. The lab gets an extra pair of hands without a salary. The student is not paid, and both sides seem to benefit.
In Ontario, it is usually not legal. Here is what the province’s own guidance says, and what a lab can do instead.
What the Employment Standards Act guide says
Ontario’s guide to the Employment Standards Act (ESA) addresses this directly. The title someone is given does not decide anything:
The fact that someone is called an “intern” or a “trainee” does not determine whether that person is an employee and entitled to the protections of the ESA.
And the test it gives is short. Someone called an intern or trainee will generally be considered an employee if they:
- receive training from an employer
- are being trained in a skill that is used by the employer’s employees
(Your guide to the ESA, “Employee status”)
Apply that to a lab. A student learning to prepare samples, run an HPLC, or record results under GMP is being trained in exactly the skills your chemists use. On the guide’s test, that student is generally an employee, and an employee is owed at least minimum wage and the other ESA entitlements. A certificate does not change that.
When unpaid work is allowed
The same chapter gives the exceptions. The ESA does not apply to a person doing work under a program approved by:
- a college of applied arts and technology, or a university
- a career college registered under the Ontario Career Colleges Act, 2005
It also does not apply to a secondary school student working under a work experience program authorized by the school board.
The common feature is that the school runs and approves the program. A placement the lab arranges on its own, with a student it found, is not covered by these exceptions, even if the student is enrolled somewhere.
Unpaid students are still covered by the safety law
Even inside an approved program, the student is protected under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Its definition of worker includes a secondary school student in a school-board work experience program, and a person working without pay under a program approved by a college, university, career college or other post-secondary institution (Guide to the OHSA, “About the Act”).
So in a chemistry lab, the employer’s duties apply to that student as to anyone else: information, instruction, supervision, and the training the law requires, including WHMIS for the chemicals they handle. And the student’s supervisor has training duties of their own: a supervisor must complete basic health and safety awareness training within one week of starting to supervise (O. Reg. 297/13, s. 2).
Three legal ways to bring students into a lab
1. A placement through the student’s school. Co-op and practicum programs at colleges and universities are the exception the law was written for. The school approves it, sets the learning goals, and usually has its own paperwork. Start with the co-op office of a college or university near you.
2. A paid placement with a wage subsidy. BioTalent Canada runs the Student Work Placement Program for bioscience and eligible healthcare employers. It covers 50% of student wages, up to $5,000 per placement term, for placements of 4 to 16 weeks at a minimum of 10 hours a week (BioTalent Canada, SWPP). A paid student is an employee, so the work they can do is limited only by their training and your quality system.
3. A research internship. Mitacs Accelerate funds research projects between a company and a university, at $15,000 per four- or six-month internship (Mitacs Accelerate). It suits a defined project, such as developing or validating a method, more than routine testing.
What about the client work?
For a GMP or contract testing lab there is a second reason to be careful. A student doing client testing is doing exactly the work the lab’s employees do, which is the clearest case for “employee” under the ESA test above. And under GMP the lab must show that whoever tests is trained and qualified, with records. A paid placement handles both: the student is an employee, and the training goes into the same records as everyone else’s.
An unpaid student who is not in an approved program should do training work only, on non-client material, with no output that the lab uses. In practice that is hard to keep separate in a small lab, which is one more reason the paid, subsidized route is usually simpler.
Sources
- Government of Ontario. Your guide to the Employment Standards Act, chapter “Employee status” (interns and trainees). Retrieved 2 October 2026.
- Government of Ontario. A guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, “About the Act” (definition of worker).
- Ontario Regulation 297/13, Occupational health and safety awareness and training, s. 2.
- BioTalent Canada. Student Work Placement Program page, 2026.
- Mitacs. Accelerate program page, 2026.
This is a summary of public guidance, not legal advice. For a decision about a specific person or arrangement, speak to an employment lawyer or Ontario’s Ministry of Labour. If you want to set up student training in your lab that also builds real competence, tell me what your lab does on LinkedIn and I will tell you how I would structure it.
Common questions
- Are unpaid internships legal in Ontario?
- Mostly not. Ontario's Employment Standards Act guide says someone called an intern or trainee will generally be an employee if they receive training from the employer in a skill used by the employer's employees. The ESA does not apply to work under a program approved by a college of applied arts and technology, a university, or a registered career college, or to a secondary school student in a school-board approved work experience program.
- Can students work in my lab for free in exchange for experience?
- Only inside an approved school program. Outside one, a student doing work that your employees normally do is generally an employee and must be paid at least minimum wage, with the other ESA entitlements. A certificate or reference does not replace pay.
- Do health and safety rules apply to unpaid students?
- Yes. The Occupational Health and Safety Act's definition of worker includes unpaid secondary students in school-board work experience programs and unpaid students in programs approved by a college, university, career college or other post-secondary institution. Safety training and supervision duties apply to them.
- Is there funding to hire students in a science lab?
- BioTalent Canada's Student Work Placement Program subsidizes paid placements for post-secondary students at bioscience and eligible healthcare employers: 50% of student wages, up to $5,000 per placement term, for 4 to 16 weeks at a minimum of 10 hours a week. Mitacs Accelerate funds research internships with a university partner at $15,000 per four- or six-month internship.
- Can a student do client work in a GMP or contract testing lab?
- Legally, a paid student employee can do any work they are trained and qualified for under your quality system. An unpaid student outside an approved program cannot lawfully do the work your employees do, and that includes client testing.