On March 25, 2008, SGM and Roy Elliot O'Connor LLP ("REO") commenced an unpaid overtime class action against the Canadian National Railway Company ("CN").

The lawsuit was brought by Michael McCracken, a CN "first line supervisor", on behalf of over one thousand present and former CN first line supervisors across Canada.

The lawsuit alleges that CN misclassified first line supervisors as management employees in order to escape its obligations to pay overtime under the Canada Labour Code. The lawsuit further alleges that CN first line supervisors across Canada are routinely required to work hundreds of hours of overtime annually for which they are not paid.

SGM and REO are working with Chivers Carpenter lawyers in Alberta and Melançon Marceau Grenier Sciortino in Quebec to ensure that employees in Western Canada, Ontario, and Quebec/Eastern Canada have access to local counsel to determine whether they qualify to be a member of the class.

For details about the case go to www.unpaidovertime.ca

For more information, please call (toll free) 1-888-687-2431 or contact Louis Sokolov.

For more information about class actions generally, click here.

 

Update: August 17, 2010 - Class action certified

On Tuesday, August 17, 2010 Justice Perell of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered that the class action brought against CN Rail be certified. That decision can be found here.

In a subsequent decision released November 2, 2010, Justice Perell ordered CN to pay the plaintiffs' costs of the application for certification. That decision can be found here.