Insight Productions, Boat Rocker Media may be next, says law firm
TORONTO and MONTREAL – Cineflix Canada, the producer of TV shows such as Property Brothers and Mayday, has been named in a $35 million class action lawsuit over unpaid wages by contract production workers.
The suit alleges that individuals working for Cineflix who work through their own corporations and/or who are called "independent contractors" have been denied basic minimum standards under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000, in the areas of minimum wage, overtime pay, vacation pay and holiday pay.
Filed in Ontario court by Toronto-based law firm Cavalluzzo, the suit is seeking $35M in general damages, $10M in punitive damages, as well as costs and interest.
When contacted by Cartt.ca, Cineflix confirmed that the company was formally served with a statement of claim on Tuesday afternoon.
“Cineflix has demonstrated a solid history of ethical standards and respect for the creative community for over 20 years”, said a company spokesperson. “Cineflix will be vigorously contesting this claim.”
The statement of claim for the suit is based on the experience of Anna Bourque, a production worker whose most recent contract at Cineflix was from September 2017 to February 2018.
"Picture editors and story editors work together taking hundreds of hours of footage and sharpening it into 43 minutes or so of entertaining television, but as schedules get squeezed our hours expand and there is never compensation for that, so our pay becomes inversely proportional to the hours worked," Bourque said in a statement.
The Canadian Media Guild and its parent union CWA Canada welcomed the suit, citing their Fairness in Factual TV campaign that seeks to bring “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 of the CMG's Fairness in Factual TV campaign, in a statement. "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."
According to Cavalluzzo’s website, class action lawsuits are being contemplated against other factual television producers, including Insight Productions and Boat Rocker Media.
