Ontario class action filed over reality show production staff wages

A multi-million dollar class action claim has been filed in Ontario Superior Court against television content producer Cineflix Media Inc. and its affiliates, claiming workers were denied minimum wage, overtime, vacation and holiday pay. It seeks $35 million and additional damages for individual contractors it claims were denied compensation under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, according to the statement of claim filed in Toronto on October 5 by Cavalluzzo LLP, the law firm representing the class action. None of the claims has been proven in court and it has not yet been certified as a class action. The company issued a statement to media that said it was formally served Tuesday afternoon and it denies the claims. “Cineflix has demonstrated a solid history of ethical standards and respect for the creative community for over 20 years," the statement said. "Cineflix will be vigorously contesting this claim.” The claim alleges the company forced its workers to incorporate and work as independent contractors and then did not pay them for vacations, overtime or holidays, and that it had “no overtime policy in place to monitor, record, or compensate overtime hours.” It seeks compensation for “non-managerial” employees who worked for the company as early as the year 2000 who work in production, pre-production or post-production. The claimant at the centre of the lawsuit, Anna Bourque, worked as a story editor in Toronto for the company on the reality TV show Property Brothers from September 2017 to February 2018, according to the statement of claim. It alleges she was “misled by the defendants” about her status as an employee and about her pay entitlements. The Canadian Media Guild (CMG) and its parent union CWA Canada issued a press release Tuesday welcoming the class action, noting that the suit comes after a five-year union campaign called “Fairness in Factual TV” aimed at bringing “fair working conditions to this part of the entertainment industry.” “Reality and factual TV are the wild west of the entertainment world,” said Lise Lareau, a coordinator for the CMG’s Fairness in Factual TV campaign. “People working in this area of production are cut out of labour laws. They don’t have the rights of other employees, and historically they’ve been left out of union contracts enjoyed by the rest of the entertainment industry.”

Ontario class action filed over reality show production staff wages

Brief | October 9, 2018

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Ontario class action filed over reality show production staff wages

Brief | October 9, 2018

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