The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) has finally reached a settlement in a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by its retail employees a decade and a half ago.
In 2007, retail branch employees in Toronto alleged they were being made to work overtime without pay. Legal proceedings have been going on since, with the last update being in February 2022, when an Ontario court dismissed CIBC’s appeal.
Now that a settlement has been reached, it will undergo an approval process by the Ontario Superior Court. In a news release, litigators at Sotos Class Actions stated that a motion would be brought in February 2023 for approval of the settlement, a plan to distribute the settlement funds, and payment of legal fees.
If the settlement is approved, CIBC will pay a total of $153 million to approximately 30,000 former and current frontline retail workers to cover unpaid overtime, legal fees, and the cost of the money’s distribution.
The former CIBC bank teller who brought the case back in 2007 is happy with these results. “This settlement is a fair compromise that will bring meaningful compensation to thousands of my fellow class members,” said Dara Fresno.
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The Class Counsel said that a major advantage of this settlement was that class members won’t have to prove their claims. This would have been challenging since some claims may arise from things that happened several decades ago.
“We believe that this settlement will put more money into more class members’ hands, a lot sooner, than would happen if the case continued to be fought,” the Class Counsel noted.
This is the second major class action lawsuit settled by CIBC in the past couple of months.
Back in November last year, CIBC issued a notice about reaching a settlement of $7.5 million in a class action lawsuit. The action was filed in 2011 by a customer over the calculation of certain prepayment charges on mortgages entered into across Canada, except Quebec.
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