Christina Spicer  |  February 24, 2021

Category: Labour Employment

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Enterprise Rent-A-Car allegedly failed to pay workers overtime

A former Enterprise Rent-A-Car worker says the company not only refused to pay for his and other employees’ overtime hours, but it didn’t even bother to record the extra time they worked.

Lead plaintiff, Jared L., says that he worked in positions deemed “management” for the car rental company in various locations in Ontario between July of 2017 and December of 2020. He says that he, along with others in similar positions, was paid a salary as well as commissions; however, Enterprise misclassified Jared and other workers as ineligible for overtime.

“Under the Applicable Provincial Employment Standards Legislation, the Class Members’ positions are in substance non-managerial and/or non-supervisory, and so are not subject to any Managerial Exemption,” argues the class action lawsuit which seeks to represent workers in seven provinces including British Columbia and Ontario. “Class Members are given a very limited scope of authority and discretion, and the common functions performed by the Class Members are of a non-managerial and non-supervisory character.”

Indeed, Jared says that his duties included cleaning vehicles, booking reservations, taking phone calls, processing rental returns, and cleaning and organizing the office.

The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in Ontario Superior Court, contends that Jared and other employees Enterprise called “managers” didn’t take on duties that would have made them ineligible for overtime pay. However, the company allegedly misclassified them and required them to regularly work more than 40 hours a week.

Jared claims that he was regularly scheduled for 55 to 80 hour work weeks, sometimes from open to close and on weekends, but never got paid overtime.

“The number and nature of the responsibilities given to the Class Members makes it generally impossible for them to complete all of their duties within the hours of their scheduled shifts,” the class action lawsuit asserts. “Accordingly, Class Members usually arrive earlier than official branch opening times to prepare the branch for a day of business, and stay later than the official branch closing times in order to complete closing tasks and prepare for the next day.”

The proposed class action lawsuit seeks to represent others who worked at Enterprise Rent-A-Car as Branch Rental Managers, Assistant Branch Rental Managers, or Station Managers at Enterprise or its associated brands, including National Car Rental and Alamo. The plaintiff seeks to represent those who worked in these capacities in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island between Jan. 1, 2010 and the present.

Have you worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car? Did the company short you on overtime pay? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.

The lead plaintiff and proposed Class Members are represented by Jonathan Ptak of Koskie Minsky LLP and Jean-Alexandre De Bousquet and Daria Chyc of De Bousquet PC.

The Enterprise Rent-A-Car Class Action Lawsuit is Jared L. v. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Canada Company, Case No. CV-20-00647858-00CP, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

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15 thoughts onEnterprise Rent-A-Car Failed to Pay Employees Overtime, Class Action Lawsuit Claims

  1. Assistant Manager says:

    I worked as an Assistant Branch Manager in Central Canada for multiple Enterprise locations. Constantly working 50-60 hours a week because that’s what was expected by our area manager – whom I might add, would never work weekends and above her maybe 40 hour work week. Favoritism and nepotism at its finest too; if you broke your back and worked 13-14 hour days, you were praised for hustling above and beyond what was expected. If you did the opposite and only worked your required hours (which rarely ever happened and would make it impossible to run a successful operation unless you worked into evenings and on many weekends), you were subject to psychological abuse via text messages and phone calls suggesting that you haven’t fully committed to the branch that we were responsible for. My branch manager was one of the area manager’s favorites because he consistently worked 60+ hours willingly, and after an incident where a branch was broken into, 6 vehicle keys stolen, 1 vehicle stolen, and several assets taken from the office, he barely received a slap on the wrist – something that ANY manager should have been terminated for with that amount of negligence.

    The job itself included very unrealistic operational practices, such as delivering vehicles across the city in unreasonable amount of time for big corporate or insurance accounts. Easy for upper management to say and promise to accounts when they aren’t the ones on the frontlines of the business. Cleaning vehicles in suits and formal clothes, that you were expected to purchase out of pocket. Lucky if a dress shirt or pair of dress pants lasted a few months.

    I was a salaried employee with monthly bonuses and other spiff incentives. However, the amount of extra time worked (sometimes up to 60+ hours a week) did not justify the amount of pay, nor did I ever receive any type of overtime or additional compensation for extra hours worked. Due to broken business models, it was sometimes impossible to be profitable month-over-month, which resulted in no further compensation other than a ridiculously low base salary and far too many hours worked in a month. We were encouraged to work ‘extra’ because it would save on personnel expenses since we were on a base salary, and discouraged from hiring drivers or additional wage staff. This is an incredibly corrupt organization that treats its employees like slaves and creates a nice smoke-and-mirrors illusion behind its TV commercials. If the general public could see the amount of abuse that employees are subject to, mainly being overworked and underpaid, they’d think twice about supporting or giving any amount of money to Enterprise.

  2. Luz says:

    This is a horrible employer! I worked as a Manager Trainee for a year with “required overtime” exceeding 50 -60 hrs per week. Management overstepped their boundaries, refused to address harassment complaints, retaliated against me after formal complaints, micromanaged employees. Truly made this a hostile work environment that I’d never recommend to anyone.

  3. RG says:

    I can completely agree with all statements made the amount of stress and amount of hours given as a manager were insane. Not to mention working 60+ hours a week and then spending about another extra 10 hours a week hunting down cars and going to tow yards to retrieve a car that is only going to come out of our check due to the damage that we had no control over

  4. Rhyan Swanson says:

    I also was an Assistant Branch Manager in Alabama and it is true we use to work a lot of hours that were not even counted for. A lot of times we would have to drive to other branches hours away to pick up cars AFTER closing and bring them back! One week my brother who has sickle cell fell ill and was on life support due to a blood clot to his lungs. I was suppose to be the manager on duty that Saturday, but with this going on I asked another associate to cover me and they did. After a couple of days with being with my brother I went back to work with paper work from the hospital saying why I was out. DO YOU KNOW THEY FIRED me because I did not call into work that Saturday I was suppose to cover!!! They cared nothing that I was going through and I was a great employee!

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