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Court says bank ‘dropped the ball’ in class action over unpaid overtime

April 07, 2020

The Lawyer’s Daily talks to Steven Barrett about the Court’s recent decision in the CIBC unpaid overtime class action

The Lawyer’s Daily reports today about the decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in the class action against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for unpaid overtime.

We have summarized the decision here.

In the report, the Lawyer’s Daily spoke to several members of the plaintiff’s team of lawyers, including Steven Barrett:

Barrett, a partner at Goldblatt Partners LLP, said the important takeaway for “both employees and employers, and for counsel advising both, is that although it’s legitimate to try and regulate the overtime that employees work, you can’t do so in a way that undercuts their fundamental entitlement to overtime.”

“In this case the bank employees were told that they wouldn’t get paid unless their overtime was pre-approved, even though it was impractical to seek pre-approval in many cases. The demands of the workplace were such that the employer ought to reasonably have known that employees were working unpaid overtime,” he added.

Read The Lawyer’s Daily report here.

Lawyers

Steven Barrett

Practice Areas

Civil Litigation, Class Action Litigation, Employment Law