Holiday Party Liability for Ontario Employers
By Anna Boshoer, Founder and Lead HR Consultant, HumanizeHR
Updated November 2026 · 5-minute read
A company had its holiday party nailed down by Halloween last year. A beautiful venue with the city lights behind it. A DJ who took requests. An ugly-sweater contest with an actual trophy. A Secret Santa spreadsheet with its own colour code.
It was the best party that team had ever thrown. People were still talking about the karaoke in February.
A few things never made the spreadsheet: when the open bar closes, how everyone gets home, and what happens when a manager's "it's just a joke" lands badly at 11 pm in front of half the team.
The first thing on the HR desk in January was a harassment complaint.
I see this pattern every December. We plan the fun down to the playlist and leave the risk to chance. So let's answer the question most owners never ask until it's too late.
The Short Answer: Yes, the Party Counts as Work
If you host it, pay for it, or invite your team to it, the holiday party is an extension of your workplace. It doesn't matter that it's after hours, at a restaurant, or "just for fun."
That means two things come with you:
Your harassment obligations.
Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act requires you to have a workplace harassment policy and program, and to investigate complaints. A complaint about something that happened at the party is a workplace complaint. Same process, same timelines.
Your duty of care.
If you serve alcohol, you take on some responsibility for what happens when people leave.
That second one surprises most owners. It shouldn't.
The Case Every Ontario Employer Should Know
In December 1994, a real estate office in Barrie, Ontario held an afternoon holiday party with an open bar that staff served themselves from. A part-time receptionist drank, left, stopped at a pub with co-workers, and then drove home in a snowstorm. She crashed and was seriously and permanently injured.
She sued her employer. In Hunt v. Sutton Group Incentive Realty (2001), the trial court found the employer and the pub jointly responsible for 25% of the damages, about $281,000. The court said the employer should have seen the pub stop coming, and that the stop didn't end its duty to make sure she got home safely.
The Ontario Court of Appeal sent the case back for a new trial in 2002, mostly on procedural grounds. But the case is still the one employment lawyers point to every December, because the reasoning hasn't gone away.
Here's the uncomfortable part: you can't run a free bar for four hours and then decide the drive home is none of your business.
Before the Invitations Go Out
Enterprise HR would hire event security and send a two-page code of conduct. You don't need that. You need five decisions, made ahead of time:
- ✅ Limit the alcohol. Drink tickets, or a switch to a cash bar after a set time. Never a self-serve open bar.
- ✅ Plan the ride home. Taxi vouchers, a rideshare budget, or hotel rooms if the venue is far. Decide it before the night, not at the coat check.
- ✅ Name a point person. One manager who isn't drinking and has permission to call a cab for someone, even the boss.
- ✅ Make it work for everyone. Food that isn't an afterthought, good non-alcoholic options, and a format where people who don't drink or don't celebrate still feel welcome.
- ✅ Set expectations before, not after. A short note reminding people the party is a work event and your respectful workplace policy applies. Two lines is enough.
On that last one: my free Respect in the Workplace training takes about 35 minutes and is built for both employees and managers. It covers what to do as the target, the bystander, or the person accused. If your team hasn't refreshed it in a while, send it out before the invitations go.
See the free Respect in the Workplace training →
What "Optional" Really Means
Most invitations say the party is optional. Then the owner notices who didn't come.
If people feel they have to be there, treat the party like work, because the line between "social" and "work" gets blurry fast. Keep it genuinely optional: no attendance tracking, no comments on Monday, and no awarding the big project to whoever closed the bar.
The Morning After a Complaint
This is the part nobody plans for. If someone comes to you with a complaint about something that happened at the party:
- ➡️ Don't wait until after the holidays. Delay reads as "we don't take this seriously," and it makes the facts harder to pin down.
- ➡️ Follow your harassment policy exactly. Under the OHSA, you have to investigate in a way that's appropriate to the situation, and tell both the person who complained and the person accused, in writing, what the investigation found and what you're doing about it.
- ➡️ Don't dismiss it as "just the party." Alcohol explains behaviour. It doesn't excuse it.
- ➡️ Protect the person who spoke up. No reprisal, including the quiet kind, like dropping them from the next team lunch.
If you're not sure your policy would hold up under a real complaint, that's worth finding out in November, not January.
Quick Answers
Is an employer liable if an employee drives drunk after the holiday party?
It can be. Ontario courts have found employers partly responsible when they served alcohol and didn't take reasonable steps to get people home safely. Limiting alcohol and arranging rides are your best protection.
Does the harassment policy apply at an off-site party?
Yes. A company-hosted event is part of the workplace, wherever it's held. Complaints from the party go through the same process as any other complaint.
Can we skip alcohol to avoid liability?
It lowers the drinking-and-driving risk. It doesn't remove your harassment obligations, which apply either way.
Not Sure Your Policy Is Ready?
If your harassment policy hasn't been opened since the last time someone printed it, start there.
Book a free HR Gut-Check: a 30-minute 1:1 call where we look at your party plan and your policy, and you walk away knowing what to fix before the invitations go out. No strings attached.
Here's to a party people remember for the right reasons.
About the author
Anna Boshoer is the Founder, Lead HR Consultant and Integrator at HumanizeHR, a fractional HR firm helping small and mid-sized businesses build people practices that actually get used. Reach her at anna@humanizehr.ca or 647-291-5741.
This article shares general information, not legal advice. For policy wording or an active complaint, work with an employment lawyer. I'm happy to refer you to one I trust.
Additoinal Sources:
Controversial Christmas party decision sent back for new trial by Court of Appeal — Emond Harnden
Workplace holiday parties: keep the fun, avoid the legal headaches — Talent Canada
