Canada AE Hospitality Class Action Says Catering Employees Misclassified

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A class action lawsuit has been filed in Canada against AE Hospitality of Toronto for $12 million by restaurant workers who claim that they were misclassified as independent contractors and not employees.

Plaintiff Kelli Harding is asking for $5 million for breached employment standards, $2 million for missed CCP and EI premiums, and $5 million in punitive damages.

A press release issued this week by the plaintiff’s attorney, Andrew Monkhouse states, “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.”

The plaintiff alleges that she was employed as a chef at AE Hospitality from October 2012 until September 2013

The AE Hospitality class action lawsuit claims that the company hires wait staff and chefs to work at events catered by the Catering Companies, named Encore and Applause. The type of events that the workers are hired for include weddings, funerals, fundraisers, corporate events and other special events, the AE Hospitality class action lawsuit alleges.

Harding states that Encore is a catering company that provides food for a myriad of events and has a production kitchen where food is prepared for said events. Also, the plaintiff claims that Applause is a catering company that provides kosher food and holds most of their events at a synagogue.

The plaintiff says her title was “Assistant Chef” while working in the Encore establishments and “Catering Chef” when she worked outside the Encore facilities.

The AE Hospitality class action lawsuit states that the plaintiff did not sign an employment or independent contractor agreement with either of the two companies.

The plaintiff asserts that when she was preparing her tax returns, “she received T4s from Encore and Applause in 2012 and from Encore, Applause and 235 in 2013. Later, in 2015, following a CRA audit of the AE Hospitality, she received a T4A from AE Hospitality.”

The plaintiff also alleges that she was not aware that she was an employee and entitled to minimum wage for each hour worked, overtime pay, vacation pay, public holiday pay, and premium pay. The plaintiff argues that she relied on the defendants to classify her properly as an employee.

The AE Hospitality class action lawsuit claims that the plaintiff did not become aware that she was eligible for all of these benefits because the defendant had continuously misrepresented her entitlement to such benefits and pay.

The plaintiff then learned in May 2019 that the Tax Court of Canada opined that AE Hospitality workers were employees for purposes of the Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance.

Proposed Class Members include: “All supervisors, servers, bartenders, and chefs who worked for one or multiple companies of the Group since October 1, 2012 to the date of the certification of this action who have not filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labour or signed a release relating to the matters in question.”

Were you misclassified as an independent contractor? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiff is represented by Andrew H. Monkhouse and Alexandra Monkhouse of Monkhouse Law.

The AE Hospitality Independent Contractor Class Action Lawsuit is Harding v. 1513563 Ontario Limited, et al., Case No. cv-19-00627034-00CP, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

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