The Supreme Court has allowed more than 70 temporary, foreign workers to sue a company operating Denny’s restaurants in B.C.

The workers claim the company did not live up to the employment contract the workers signed before they arrived from the Philippines.

Supreme Court of B.C. Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick certified a class-action suit against Northland Properties Corporation, which operates Denny’s Restaurants and Dencan Restaurants Inc last week.

One of the plaintiffs Herminia Vergara Dominguez said in court documents that she was recruited from the Philippines to work in Denny’s restaurants, paid thousands of dollars in recruitment fees and was promised employment.

She and others involved in the suit allege the defendants failed to provide the promised work, didn’t pay overtime and failed to reimburse expenses.

Fitzpatrick says the class action moves the litigation forward, helps resolve common issues and addresses issues of “judicial economy.”

The original suit was filed in the B.C. Supreme Court on January 7 last year on behalf of the Filipino migrant workers employed at Denny’s from 2006 until the present.

Last March the Asian Pacific Post reported that one of the lawyers representing the workers, Charles Gordon, alleges that “the workers came to Canada, mainly as cooks and servers, to take jobs at Denny’s Restaurants in B.C. but were required to pay approximately $6,000 each to an agency that was recruiting employees for the Defendants, and the workers have not received the hours of work, overtime pay, air travel and other conditions they were promised.”

“These workers were encouraged to come to Canada with a set of promises that have never been met – they have done their part but the Denny’s has not lived up to their end of the deal,” says Christopher Foy, another member of the legal team.

“The federal government’s Temporary Foreign Workers program continues to be a shameful treadmill that lures workers to Canada, and then leaves them defenseless and vulnerable,” said Hanley.

 “The fact that the Denny’s workers have been forced to go to court is yet another blatant example of how the exploitive TFW program turns a blind eye to what happens to migrant  workers once they arrive in Canada.”

Denny’s Canada last year released a statement saying it will investigate the allegations and all alleged incidents described. 

“We have always adhered to the employment standards guidelines and continue to be strong supporters of workplace ethics,” marketing director Brent Armstrong was quoted as saying after the lawsuit was filed.

Leo Alejandria of Migrante BC (Canada) had earlier said given that many temporary foreign workers are threatened with deportation if they dared speak up; it is inspiring that the Denny’s employees have come forward to shed light on the exploited plight of these workers in Canada.

There were approximately 280,000 TFWs in Canada last December 2009, with those from the Philippines comprising the largest number at around 51,000, according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. 

B.C. had 44,000 temporary foreign workers in 2009. 

Common issues for many TFWs include low wages, lack of job security, lack of benefits, vulnerability to contract violations, separation from families and sub-standard living conditions.

“Given that the Aquino administration in the Philippines is bent on heightening further its export of workers to Canada and around the world, it is certain that the number of TFWs facing conditions similar to that of the Denny’s workers will increase,” said Alejandria.

“As such, MIGRANTE-BC recognizes the importance of this class suit to all TFWs across Canada. This is a precedent setting case whose impact will surely reverberate around the country, in the Philippines and beyond.”