Monkhouse Law launches 12 Million Dollar employee class action lawsuit against AE Hospitality, for misclassification of restaurant workers

TORONTO, Oct. 29, 2019 /CNW/ - An employee class action lawsuit has been filed by Monkhouse Law against AE Hospitality of Toronto that operated two closely related catering companies, Encore Food with Elegance and Applause Catering Inc. The two catering companies no longer exist and have been replaced by Encore Catering.

The employee lawsuit claims damages of $5 million for breached employment standards and $2 million in missed CCP and EI premiums. It also seeks $5 million in punitive damages for a total of 12 Million Dollars.

Monkhouse Law Fights for Worker Rights (CNW Group/Monkhouse Law)

"The flexibility to refuse work does not turn employees into independent contractors," said Andrew Monkhouse, founder and managing lawyer of Monkhouse Law, a Toronto employment law firm.

"This is yet another misclassification of workers. We are seeing more and more of these cases every month," said Mr. Monkhouse.

The employee class action lawsuit is being filed on the heels of a July 2019 Tax Court of Canada decision, AE Hospitality v MNR, where Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) found that the 218 workers of AE Hospitality were employees and not independent contractors. This being the case, the 218 workers were engaged in pensionable and insurable employment.

Whereas in tax cases, subjective intent (i.e. to be an independent contractor) is relevant in determining an employee's status, employees have no power to contract out of the protections afforded them under the Employment Standards Act (ESA) 2000, even if they wanted to.

"Rather, the test in assessing the status of a worker is this:  'Whose business is it?' Do workers bear the business risk? in relation to the services they provide to the company? Or, is that risk borne by the company?" said Mr. Monkhouse.

Affected employees of AE Hospitality can keep up-to-date on the employee class action lawsuit by completing a form on the Monkhouse law website for affected workers: https://www.monkhouselaw.com/ae-hospitality-catering-misclassification

Toronto-based Monkhouse Law is an employment law firm that specializes in: employee class actions, wrongful dismissal, human rights law, employment insurance claims, and denied long-term disability claims.

SOURCE Monkhouse Law

Andrew Monkhouse, Monkhouse Law Barristers & Solicitors, [email protected], [phone]