By Susan Mas, CBC News | Link to Article
A company that recruits temporary foreign workers on behalf of Canadian employers has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s Canada, alleging breach of contract and defamation of character.
By Susan Mas, CBC News | Link to Article
A company that recruits temporary foreign workers on behalf of Canadian employers has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s Canada, alleging breach of contract and defamation of character.
Graeme Young, the Manitoba lawyer representing Actyl Group Inc., which has recruited temporary foreign workers for McDonald’s in Western Canada, told CBC News the lawsuit was filed in a Winnipeg court Thursday.
In the company’s statement of claim, Actyl alleges McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Ltd. breached its contract when it failed to pay the agency certain “service fees” for immigration services it provided the franchisees.
Actyl alleges McDonald’s Canada was “unjustly enriched” when it deducted money from the paycheques of its foreign workers and pocketed the deductions instead of paying the recruiting agency directly.
Young told CBC News the services fees are for “certain immigration services that Actyl may provide to employees of McDonald’s with respect to the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program, the Provincial Nominee Program, or other work permit, or permanent residency applications.”
Actyl alleges that McDonald’s Canada had also agreed to pay the agency “a $500 CDN bonus” for “every successful permanent resident application” that was granted to its foreign workers.
“The defendant failed to remit to the plaintiff timely payroll deductions, deducted from the employee’s payroll, and refused or neglected and continues to refuse or neglect to remit those amounts due and owing under the agreement,” says Actyl’s statement of claim.
Young could not say how much money McDonald’s Canada allegedly owes Actyl in unpaid fees, but he told CBC News it’s an amount “they could take out of their coffee fund or petty cash.”
In response to a request for comment, a media relations spokesperson for McDonald’s Canada referred CBC News directly to Actyl.
The spokesperson did not say in their email when McDonald’s Canada would file a statement of defence.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.