Law firms Roy Elliott Kim O’Connor LLP and Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP are launching a second unpaid overtime class action suit, this time against Scotiabank.
The action covers thousands of current and former non-management, non-unionized employees of Scotiabank who are or were personal bankers or other front-line customer service employees(limited to personal bankers, commercial bankers and account executives)working at Scotiabank retail branch offices across Canada.
The representative of the class action is Cindy Fulawka, a personal banking representative who has worked in several Scotiabank branches in Saskatchewan and Ontario for more than 15 years. Based on her own experience, she claims the unpaid overtime situation is widespread at the bank among non-management employees.
“Unpaid overtime appears to be widespread in the financial services industry, affecting some of the lowest paid and most vulnerable employees,” says Louis Sokolov, partner, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell. “Because of a lack of effective enforcement of federal labour laws, class actions, like this one can be an effective means to compel employers to comply with the law.”
The statement of claim alleges that class members are assigned heavier workloads than can be completed within their standard working hours. They are required or permitted to work overtime to meet the demands of their jobs and Scotiabank fails to pay for the overtime work in direct contravention of the Canada Labour Code under which they are regulated.
In a statement, Scotiabank says it is “confident that the bank’s employee policies have been applied fairly and consistently. With specific reference to overtime, the bank’s policy is based on the Canada Labour Code.
To read CIBC faces $600M unpaid overtime suit, click here.
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