On June 18, 2009, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce prevailed in the Ontario Superior Court by resisting class action certification of an action concerning the bank’s overtime policies and practices for branch employees.
Justice Joan Lax dismissed the C$600 million bid to launch a class action against CIBC for unpaid overtime work, ruling that the facts surrounding overtime complaints at CIBC were too individualized to be addressed as a class action lawsuit.
The claim was launched by Dara Fresco, a teller and personal banker with the bank since 1998. Justice Lax concluded that the circumstances of Ms. Fresco’s case, as well as evidence submitted by nine other employees and a branch manager, showed “a variety of individual circumstances” that could only be resolved in individual legal claims. She concluded that the evidence “provides no basis in fact that there is a systemic practice of unpaid overtime at CIBC.”
In addition, Justice Lax rejected Ms. Fresco’s allegations that CIBC’s overtime policy was unlawful. To the contrary, she found that it was plain and obvious that the policy complied with or exceeded legal requirements.
The decision is the first contested certification motion to be decided in Canada in an overtime case.
On September 10, 2010, the Divisional Court dismissed the appeal of the June 2009 certification decision.