Western Star Employment Class Action
Court Approves Settlement of Employment Class Action
Written by AdministratorWe are pleased to announce that the proposed settlement, concluding the final subsidiary claims in the employment action was approved by the BC Supreme Court on Thursday June 19, 2008. Please note that the Pension Class Action has not been settled and continues to be advanced by us on behalf of the Pension Classes.
The Court commented that the Plaintiff's had "challenges" if they had gone forward to trial with this, and in the circumstances the settlement was "fair and reasonable". The thrust of the Court's comments was that this was a good outcome/smart settlement for the Plaintiffs. The Court noted that the Plaintiffs had counsel with a great deal of experience in this area negotiating this settlement and commented that the settlement was achieved after the Plaintiffs had explored the issues through extensive document production and Examination for Discovery.
On legal fees, the Court noted that a great deal of legal effort was expended and that $52,200 was a reasonable fee. The Court noted that disbursements incurred were almost $36,000, out of which 2/3 was attributed to this part of the case. She therefore approved disbursements in the amount of $23,896.26.
We are working closely with Representative Plaintiff Peter Gregg and with counsel for Freightliner to establish a final list of amounts to be paid to "Exempt employees" who are class members and who worked during the year 2002 and who did not receive a bonus. We are also working to ensure we have current mailing addresses for all those persons. Freightliner will be mailing the cheques, after withholding Income tax as required by law.
TevlinGleadle is pleased to announce that, working closely with and assisted by representative plaintiff Peter Gregg, and in co-operation with Employer's Counsel, we have now reached a proposed settlement of the Bonus claim for Freightliner "Exempt Staff" and the separate claim for additional notice for certain senior long service managerial employees.
After our unsuccessful attempt to have the Court not credit Freightliner with notice for the time period before the closure of the plant in September, 2002, and upon further inquiry into the remaining claims, the bonus claim and the claim for additional notice periods were determined by Peter Gregg and by us as Class counsel to be the only remaining meritorious claims.
Therefore, the proposed settlement reached with Freightliner, subject to the approval of the Court, will resolve all remaining issues in the Employment Action.
The seperate Pension Action is continuing and unaffected by this proposed settlement.
The final settlement on the Employment Claim is approximately $200,000. That amount will be apportioned to certain "Exempt Staff" who worked at Kelowna during the year 2002 and who were not transferred to Portland and based on the evidence which has been collected by class members and provided by the employer as a result of diligent searches, in many locations, over the past several years. The amount is equal to 5% of wages earned in 2002, in lieu of bonus, and is coincident with the cessation of the payment of Overtime and the granting of certain salary increases.
The settlement amounts will be subject to the normal withholding taxes required by the Government of Canada, after deduction of any legal fees and disbursements as may be approved by the Court.
The settlement and all details and provisions must be approved by the BC Supreme Court and we plan to make the application Wednesday, May28, 2008. If the settlement is approved, Class counsel will work and co-operate with Freightliner and its counsel, to get the appropriate cheques to the appropriate class members as soon as possible.
Persons interested in obtaining further information about the proposed settlement may contact TevlinGleadle at this link.
Directions Given at Case Management Conference
Written by Administrator- issues relating to the wage rollback
- issues relating to payment of overtime
- issues relating to non-payment of bonuses
There are additional individual issues left for class members, in addtion to the aforementined common issues, including sufficiency of notice provided and adequacy of the amount paid in lieu of notice, now that it is determined that he working notice is to be taken into account, to the credit of the employer.
The court's directions are found here.
The Appeal was heard on June 14, 2005.
The Court of Appeal refused the appeal, in effect deciding that the original decision of the trial judge was correct.
Reasons for Judgement, Court of Appeal - June 14, 2005
Class Counsel have commenced an Appeal to the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Freightliner Ltd. has cross appealed for an order that the matter be decertified.
Summary Trial Relating to Whether any Working Notice Provided
Written by AdministratorThe hearing took place at the Vancouver courthouse on March 24th and 25th, 2004. The court was asked to determine whether Freightliner's employees received any effective working notice of termination of their employment.
Notice of Motion filed January 20, 2004
Affidavit of Peter Gregg sworn on July 24, 2002
Affidavit of Peter Gregg sworn on January 20, 2004
Counsel for Freightliner have scheduled an examination for discovery of Peter Gregg, the representative plaintiff, at the offices of TevlinGleadle on February 19th, 2004.
New Pleading filed in Employment Law Class Action
Written by AdministratorBecause the proceeding was intitally commenced as a joint action for pension and employment law claims, after the severance, it was necessary to start a new action for the employment law claims. A new action was commenced on April 4, 2003.
Writ of Summons and Statement of Claim, revised to exclude Pension Claims