Toronto used car dealership facing $5-million class action for shortchanging salespeople on benefits and vacation pay

TORONTO, Feb. 11, 2020 /CNW/ - Monkhouse Law is seeking to certify a $5-millon class action against the Approval Team, a used car dealership with five locations in the Greater Toronto Area, for shortchanging employees on hours they worked and failing to compensate them for overtime, vacation and public holiday pay.

The lawsuit puts the spotlight on consequences that startups and auto dealerships face if they fail to pay their sales employees properly and deprive them of their statutory benefits.

The action was filed on behalf of Tom Rallis of Mississauga who worked as a salesman at the firm from April 2018 to May 2019 and includes all employees who worked for the company since its inception.

The statement filed in the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice alleges that employees of the company did not receive statutory benefits and did not have proper statutory remittances done on their behalf. The class action alleges that the Approval Team had no policy in place to properly monitor, record or compensate employees for overtime or public holiday pay hours. Although Rallis was an employee of the Approval Team and attended weekly sales meetings, he did not receive vacation pay or statutory holiday pay, nor were government remittances properly deducted, contrary to the Employment Standards Act. At the end of his employment, Approval Team appeared to change its practice and provide paystubs with statutory deductions.

"These salespeople were employees of the company and relied on the Approval Team to fulfill their contractual and statutory employment duties and properly keep track of and pay them overtime and vacation pay," said Andrew Monkhouse, founder of Monkhouse Law. "The company systemically encouraged the employees to work long hours and failed to compensate them with any premium for working those extra hours."

According to the lawsuit, salespersons were encouraged and even required to work a minimum of 10-hour days, six days a week, exceeding the 44-hour limit in Ontario. Meanwhile, the company failed to collect government and payroll taxes, and acted in a callous manner by not resolving the issue. The lawsuit states that the Approval Team benefited from forcing their employees to work overtime without pay, which constitutes illegal wage theft, and the company should be required to do more than merely pay the money owed to the employees in order to discourage other companies from shortchanging workers.

About Monkhouse Law
Toronto-based Monkhouse Law is an employment law firm that specializes in wrongful dismissal, human rights law, labour law, employment insurance claims, and denied long-term disability claims. The law firm has a strong history of representing employees in class actions, including having started the first Canadian contractor misclassification case of Sondhi v. Deloitte in 2015.

To learn more about the action click here.

SOURCE Monkhouse Law Professional Corporation