Roughly 30,000 former and current workers expected to receive payment
The deadline for current and former Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) front-line retail staff has finally passed as part of the bank’s $153-million settlement of a class action filed against it.
Current and former CIBC front-line retail staff – including tellers, financial service representatives, financial service associates and branch ambassadors – who worked for the employer between 1993 and 2009 could be eligible for the compensation from CIBC’s settlement, according to law firm Sotos Class Actions.
CIBC is expected to pay roughly 30,000 workers to cover unpaid overtime, legal fees and the cost of the money’s distribution.
There will be no extension of the deadline, according to the law firm.
The payouts to individual class members could be in the thousands of dollars, depending on length of service, wage rate, etc., according to Sotos Class Actions.
After the claim deadline, the payments will be distributed in two parts, reported the Daily Hive. Class members will first be sent a cheque consisting of 70% of their relative share. The second distribution will consist of the remaining 30% of their relative share.
Unpaid overtime costs employees $5,626 a year, according to a previous report.
Unpaid overtime case against CIBC
In 2007, retail branch employees in Toronto alleged they were being made to work overtime without pay.
Legal proceedings have been going on since. And in March 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice provided that CIBC pay – without any admission of liability – $153 million to settle the case.
“This settlement is a fair compromise that will bring meaningful compensation to thousands of my fellow class members,” said Dara Fresco, the former CIBC bank teller who brought the case back in 2007, according to the Daily Hive report.
The CIBC settlement was reached after 15 years of contested litigation and months of negotiation, which followed decisions on liability by the Ontario Superior Court and Court of Appeal, according to the law firm Goldblatt Partners, which represented bank teller Dan Fresco, who brought the case forward in 2007.
