Superior Court of Ontario certifies class action proceeding against BlackBerry

OTTAWA, June 7, 2019 /CNW/ - The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has certified a class proceeding against BlackBerry Ltd. Impacted BlackBerry employees allege the company terminated their employment when BlackBerry allowed its business partner, Ford Motor Co. of Canada, to offer them new employment without providing any clear offer of continued employment with BlackBerry. With no clear offer of employment from BlackBerry, the impacted employees accepted employment with Ford, without receiving severance from BlackBerry and with no recognition of their seniority from Ford.

The Representative Plaintiff, David Parker, was one of the BlackBerry employees who agreed to employment with Ford after BlackBerry would not provide him with any certainty about his future employment with BlackBerry. He started this Action in 2017 on behalf of the impacted employees with Nelligan O'Brien Payne LLP as Class Counsel.

In a decision, Justice Michel Charbonneau concluded Parker's application satisfies the criteria for a class proceeding, as outlined in the Class Proceedings Act. Justice Charbonneau certified the class proceeding on behalf of:

All persons in Canada who were employees and/or dependant contractors of BlackBerry Limited ("BlackBerry"), who worked for BlackBerry in Canada and who were offered and accepted employment with the Ford Motor Company of Canada ("Ford") between January 1, 2017 and April 30, 2017, while excluding BlackBerry employees who filed a complaint pursuant to section 96 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 seeking termination pay and/or severance pay and did not withdraw that complaint within two weeks.

Parker is named as the representative plaintiff on behalf of these employees. Most of the 300 affected employees are based in Waterloo and Ottawa, Ontario with the rest scattered throughout Ontario and Nova Scotia.

"This is an important decision allowing impacted employees to challenge BlackBerry's actions on a collective basis," says Andrew Montague-Reinholdt, a lawyer with Nelligan O'Brien Payne. Montague-Reinholdt adds these workers are simply fighting to protect their rights to severance and seniority. "The affected BlackBerry employees can now go forward to assert their right to severance on termination, and argue BlackBerry acted in bad faith in denying them their contractual and minimum employment standards entitlements." 

BlackBerry employees interested in more information about the class action are welcome to contact Leigh Norton: [email protected] and [phone]. Nelligan O'Brien Payne also encourages them to provide their contact information here to receive updates about this case.

SOURCE Nelligan O'Brien Payne

For media queries, please contact Hannah Saunders, [email protected], [phone]

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