Pending Class Action Lawsuit Agains Just Energy

Father living off $3.32 an hour launches grade action against energy giant

Lawsuit alleges But Energy misclassified employees as independent contractors to avoid legal obligations like minimum wage.

For 18 months, Haidar Omarali says he was told when and where to work past multimillion-dollar utilities retailer Just Energy. He was told what to say to customers courtesy of a pre-written script, what to vesture in the form of company branded clothing, and was trained, supervised and disciplined by his company.

Sound like an employee to you? So it should, according to a new grade-action lawsuit — the get-go of its kind in Canada.

Only in the eyes of multi-national corporation Just Energy, Omarali was not an employee at all; he was an "independent contractor" with no right to minimum wage, overtime pay, or whatever other workplace protections. As a result, court documents allege, the 58-twelvemonth-former Toronto father worked at to the lowest degree six days a calendar week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.k. on commission prepare past the company, which sometimes came out to as little as $3.32 an hour — far beneath Ontario'southward $eleven.25 minimum wage.

The course-action lawsuit on behalf of seven,000 Just Energy sales agents claims the business organisation with operations beyond North America and the United Kingdom "unjustly enriched" itself by misclassifying its salespeople as independent contractors. That, the adjust alleges, immune information technology to make significant savings on things like basic pay, overtime, and EI contributions — since only workers designated as employees are entitled to such workplace rights. The case has yet to be tested in court.

"They keep you at the lesser of the totem pole because that's where most of their acquirement comes from," said Omarali, who says he had to cash out his kids' life insurance at i point to make ends come across.

In a statement to the Star, Just Energy said it disagreed with the Ontario superior court'due south decision to certify the lawsuit, or requite it approval to move forward as a class action, adding that the presiding approximate acknowledged the company "may well prevail on the merits."

"The judge also recognized that previous decisions by numerous regulatory agencies had reassured Merely Energy that the sales agents were, indeed, independent contractors, and non employees. Only Energy believes it complied with the police and will continue to vigorously defend itself in this litigation," the argument said.

In a summary of its position, leading labour police business firm Koskie Minsky described its clients, who went door-to-door across Ontario selling gas and electricity contracts, every bit "low-skilled and vulnerable employees," ofttimes people without post-secondary degrees or new Canadians.

"This is the first class action where we're actually seeking determination from the courtroom that all 7,000 of these people were improperly classified and equally a result denied their bones employment rights similar minimum wage," said Jody Brown, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.

Brown said the key objective of the accommodate was "changing current behaviour" effectually misclassification, which strips workers of basic protections.

Nether Canadian law, contained contractors are generally supposed to operate autonomously, setting their ain schedules and using their own equipment. Co-ordinate to the class-action suit, Merely Energy sales agents signed a contract classifying them every bit such. But, the adapt alleges, they were too transported past company employees to target neighbourhoods, subject to mandatory preparation, supervision, and disciplinary schemes, and instructed to wear company-branded habiliment — right down to the lid on their caput, which they were told should sport the Just Energy logo.

In response to those allegations, lawyers for Simply Free energy said in a statement of the company'due south position sent to the Star that their sales agents' training was "largely a role of regulatory compliance." While information technology says its sales agents had to identify themselves equally company representatives to customers and abide by some visitor restrictions, it also said workers were "not required to follow scripts prescribed past Just Energy or otherwise follow Just Free energy'due south suggestions or advice."

The consequence of what defines an employee and who should exist entitled to bones workplace rights is a alive 1: Ontario is in the midst of reviewing its employment and labour laws, which critics phone call outdated and ineffective. Among the recommendations made by labour groups is a regime crackdown on misclassification by establishing a "reverse onus" on employee status — significant all workers would exist presumed to be employees unless their bosses tin can prove otherwise.

"I think increasing enforcement mechanisms to ensure people know if they're captured as an employee or not, or if they're really existence misclassified is of import," Chocolate-brown said.

"When people are looking for a job, they're looking for a paycheque. They're not necessarily aware of the legal nuances, the differences between an independent contractor and an employee."

As previously reported by the Star, there has been significant momentum southward of the border to tackle employee misclassification. At the Port of Los Angeles, hundreds of truck drivers are challenging their classification every bit independent contractors through the courts. The U.South. Department of Labour has signed agreements with multiple states to tackle employee misclassification, and recently issued legal guidance to clarify that most workers should exist treated as employees under the law.

The lawsuit filed by Omarali and his lawyers against Just Energy says the private claims of the 7,000 sales agents would have been too minor to pursue — but a class activeness would "provide admission to justice to thousands of vulnerable employees."

For Omarali, who left the company in 2013 afterward making less than $24,000 that yr, it is about righting a job opportunity gone wrong.

"There was always the hope that you would brand more," he said. "But that was simply a delusion."

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Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/08/father-living-off-332-an-hour-launches-class-action-against-energy-giant.html

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