Approval Team Class Action Alleges Wage and Hour Violations

A $5 million class action lawsuit has been filed against a Toronto used car dealership chain over allegations it failed to pay workers all they were owed.

The wage and hour class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiff Tom Rallis against Approval Team Inc., which has five used car dealerships in the greater Toronto area.

Rallis alleges the Approval Team failed to pay workers for all hours they worked and failed to pay for overtime, vacation and public holiday pay in violation of the Employment Standards Act. 

According to the wage and hour class action lawsuit, Rallis worked as a used car salesman from April 2018 through May 2019.

Rallis says he was paid solely on commissions based on a percentage of his sales. If he didn’t make any sales, he would be paid about $1,000, which would be deducted from future commissions.

However, he says the Approval Team failed to provide him with pay stubs so that he could confirm his commissions.

According to the wage and hour class action lawsuit, Rallis never received vacation pay or statutory holiday pay while he worked for the Approval Team. Rallis says the company did not have an overtime or public holiday policy to monitor, record, or compensate employees for overtime or public holiday pay hours.

Rallis also accuses the company of failing to provide overtime pay to workers who worked more than 44 hours in a week.

“Approval Team systematically encouraged the Class Members to work long hours and systematically failed to compensate Class Members with any premium for working extra hours,” the unpaid wages class action lawsuit states.

“The workers in question are not exempt from overtime and thus ought to be paid compensation equal to the overtime hours worked.”

Rallis alleges that Approval Team required employees to work at least 10 hours per day, six days a week to earn commissions. He claims that the company’s sales targets could often only be met by working more than 44 hours per week.

Even though employees frequently worked more than 44 hours per week, they were allegedly not paid 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for each hour in excess of 44 hours worked in a work week as required by the Employment Standards Act.

Approval Team also failed to collect government taxes and payroll taxes as required by law, the unpaid wages class action lawsuit alleges.

Rallis argues that punitive damages are appropriate because, among other reasons, the company “acted in a callous manner” by failing to resolve the problems after learning about them, and by attempting to not pay back-wages to the affected employees.

Rallis filed the wage and hour class action lawsuit on behalf of himself and a proposed Class of all employees who have worked at Approval Team.

Do you think this unpaid wages class action lawsuit will be successful? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!

Rallis is represented by Alexandra Monkhouse and Andrew H. Monkhouse of Monkhouse Law.

The Approval Team Wage and Hour Class Action Lawsuit is Tom Rallis v. Approval Team Inc., et al., Case No. CV-20-00634668-00CP, in the Superior Court of Justice in Ontario, Canada. 

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