An Ontario Superior Court Justice certified a class action on behalf of 521 former employees of a call centre operated by the defendants in Brigaitis v IQT Ltd., 2014 ONSC 7.  The employees, dismissed en masse on July 15, 2011, were told that they would get nothing further from the defendants after that date.  Specifically, the employees were advised that they would not be receiving outstanding pay, vacation pay, severance and termination pay or pay in lieu of notice.

The proposed plaintiffs alleged that the call centre's closure was caused by the defendants' diversion of monies for personal purposes before the closure.  The court identified 3 groups of claimants, based on their status as claimants under s. 97 of the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000, and concluded that a class proceeding was the appropriate method of advancing the claims of the class members on all but a few of the issues.  The court allowed claims of negligence, conspiracy, inducing breach of contract and oppression under the Ontario Business Corporation Act to proceed as class actions.

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