The debate over unpaid overtime in the trucking industry is heating up, with a $100-million class action lawsuit launched against Canada Cartage.
The law firm Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus LLP has launched the suit on behalf of workers who claim they were not paid for overtime.
The lawsuit has been launched on behalf of representative plaintiff Marc-Oliver Baroch, a shunt truck driver who worked at Canada Cartage’s Mississauga location for about seven years. The lawsuit will represent workers who’ve been at Canada Cartage since March 1, 2006.
The statement of claim alleges that Canada Cartage regularly required or permitted some or all of its employees to work hours in excess of their standard hours of work, in order to complete the common duties of their employment, the law firm alleges. The statement of claim also alleges that around July 2012, Canada Cartage reduced wages “without reasonable notice” in order to make it appear as though class members were being paid overtime.
The lawsuit alleges that Canada Cartage actually “manipulated class members’ rates of pay such that their gross weekly earnings remained unchanged.”
“This case seeks to pull back the curtain to reveal the long-standing and systemic practice by Canada Cartage of not fully compensating its employees for overtime,” said Eric R. Hoaken, a partner at Lax O’Sullivan Scott Lisus LLP. “The essence of the claim is that Canada Cartage did not meet its obligations to the class members and actively sought to mislead them about their entitlement to overtime. These practices must stop.”
