Monkhouse Law has filed for an order to certify a class action lawsuit against Bank of Montreal for underpaid vacation and public holiday pay on variable compensation such as commissions.
The class action is the third filed by Monkhouse Law against a large Canadian company for shortchanging employees on vacation and public holiday pay. Orders to certify class actions were previously filed against RBC Insurance Agency Ltd., RBC Life Insurance Co. and Aviva General Insurance Co., those actions are ongoing and allegations are to be proven in court.
The employee class action lawsuit alleges that the company’s practice of calculating vacation and public holiday pay for variable compensation employees at BMO violated the Canada Labour Code. It is alleged that BMO paid vacation pay and holiday pay only on the base pay of variable compensation employees instead of their entire compensation, inclusive of variable components.
The Amended Notice of Civil Claim is available here.
The certification motion that was heard before the Supreme Court of British Columbia from September 12 to 16, 2022 and on October 28, 2022 in Vancouver. The certification decision is currently under reserve.
The class is defined in the Amended Notice of Civil Claim as as all-non unionized Variable Compensation Employees who worked for the Bank of Montreal since January 1, 2010 to the date of certification and who are federally regulated in the roles of Private Wealth Consultants and Mortgage Specialists.
The news release is available here.
IMPORTANT – No action is required by employees to join this class action. In British Columbia, class action lawsuits are an “opt out” system, so if this class action lawsuit is certified, all employees who fall under the class action definition will be members of the class unless they opt out.
Current or former variable compensation employees of BMO who have information that may assist the litigation should contact Alexandra Monkhouse at 416-907-9249, ext. 211 or at alexandra@monkhouselaw.com
Affected employees of BMO can keep up-to-date on the employee class action lawsuit by completing the below form: