Flight Centre Unpaid Overtime Class Action Seeks Certification

A motion for Class certification has been filed with a Canadian court by a plaintiff who claims that Flight Centre owes him overtime wages.

Plaintiff Stephen Aps says he was employed by Flight Centre as an International Travel Consultant from April 2014 to January 2015.

The plaintiff states that travel consultants are required to work beyond their usual hours because of the nature of their sales positions.

In addition, the plaintiff says employees in his former position have to work through their lunch breaks and sometimes have to skip lunch to cater to the needs of clients.

The Flight Centre class action claims that travel consultants have to work after their scheduled hours are completed to serve potential clients who come into the store or contact them by phone or email towards the end of their shifts.

In addition, Aps alleges that he and other travel consultants were required to tend to administrative work after hours if they were not able to perform these tasks during their regularly scheduled work day. The plaintiff states that he was also expected to go to training and company events, which were not paid.

According to the Flight Centre class action, putative Class Members sometimes work in addition to their scheduled hours but there is no structure in place to record these overtime hours, and more importantly, compensate employees for them.

“By virtue of the power imbalance inherent to the employee employer relationship the Class Members are powerless to challenge the unlawful aspects of the Defendant’s Overtime Policy. In attempting to do so they would risk discharge and/or employment and career-related sanctions,” the Flight Centre class action lawsuit maintains.

The Flight Centre class action lawsuit argues that the defendant “discourages” its workers from requesting payment for overtimes hours worked. The plaintiff claims that the defendant refuses to pay for hours worked over the overtime threshold allowed by Canadian law.

In the Flight Centre class action lawsuit, Aps says that the company unlawfully hinders overtime payment in those situations that were agreed to by company management.

The plaintiff claims that the Flight Centre’s overtime policy is unlawful in that it claims to give “special incentives” as compensation for overtime.

“The Class Members plead that as a matter of law, Flight Centre owed them a duty of good faith that was incorporated into their contracts of employment, including a duty to advise the Class Members they were eligible for overtime compensation in respect of all overtime hours worked,” the class action complaint states.

Aps claims that the defendant’s overtime policy creates “unlawful barriers” for overtime hours worked and violates the employment standards legislation.

Potential Class Members include: “All current or former Travel Consultants […] employed by Flight Centre at its retail locations in the Provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, for the period from October 2010 to the date certification is granted in this action.”

Do you work for Flight Centre or are in a sales position and are not paid overtime? Leave a message in the comments section below.

The plaintiff is represented by Charles Sinclair, Joshua Mandryk, and Nadine Blum of Goldblatt Partners LLP.

The Flight Centre Overtime Class Action Lawsuit is Stephen Aps v. Flight Centre Travel Group (Canada) Inc., Case No 19-00614755-00, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Canada.

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