Toronto, Canada: An employment class action lawsuit has been filed against the Canadian Smartphone maker BlackBerry by former employees who allege the company denied them termination entitlements.
Specifically, the proposed lawsuit claims that Blackberry transferred more than 300 employees to business partner Ford Motor Company of Canada and then gave them resignation letters, thereby avoiding termination entitlements.
According to the suit, BlackBerry’s actions amount to a termination of the employees’ employment. This entitles these employees to statutory, common law, and/or contractual entitlements on termination. BlackBerry has stated that it will not pay BlackBerry employees any of these entitlements, despite the fact that employees lose all of their years of service.
According to a statement released by attorneys for the plaintiffs, the Blackberry employees worked in Ontario and across Canada.
BlackBerry is accused of breaching its duties of good faith and honesty, and of knowingly misleading its employees. BlackBerry structured this transaction in such a way as to avoid paying these employees their statutory entitlements.
Plaintiffs are seeking $20,000,000 in damages or a resolution consistent with termination entitlements, contractual entitlements on termination, and/or common law entitlements on termination, in addition to bad faith and punitive damages, and costs. Plaintiffs are represented by Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP.
