Former staff members from Great Canadian Gaming Corporation have been unhappy with how the gaming firm has dealt with their contract situations. The workers were employed by the company’s Casino Nanaimo in British Columbia have filed individual class-action lawsuits on behalf of all employees on the basis of wrongful dismissal by the gaming leader.
Casino Nanaimo was shut down on March 16, 2020, due to the break-out of the unprecedented situation across the globe. For over a year now its workers were unable to return to work, as the lockdown restrictions in the province have just started to ease in. Unlike all other properties of the company, staff members are not unionized.
Legal Action
Catherine Fanning, Kimberly Bussiere, and Samantha Heffel are the names of the three employees who have decided to take on the gaming conglomerate. The staff members have filed lawsuits against the company in April this year, claiming that their dismissal was reprehensible. According to the lawsuit, employees were unable to receive banked vacation payments and some of their benefits were cut off.
Several employees stated that the corporation never contacted them on the matter of their contractual situation, and never got the consent of extending the temporary lay-off period. Another rather interesting claim is that in July 2020, some workers who usually receive tips were handed out envelopes of cash from the trunk of the manager’s vehicle.
In September employees said that they were forced into a buyout that was equal to the Employment Standards Act of one week of salary per year of service up to eight weeks pay. The staff members claimed that the corporation required them to take the buyouts as severance pay, which would disentitle them from the employment insurance. Claims continued that the company did not comply with the terminations under the ESA on August 30, 2020, when the government made temporary layoff permanent.
The lawsuit states that the gaming corporation has attempted to force destitute workers to take a buyout that leaves them stuck in a month’s time is disgraceful. The claims will seek aggravated and punitive damages for unfair or constructive dismissal. The gaming corporation has still not given a response to the lawsuits.
Previous Controversy
This is not the first instance of Great Canadian Gaming Corporation’s being involved in controversy. This January, now-former CEO of the gaming leader, Rod Baker, and his wife Ekaterina Baker were caught attempting to vaccine-queue jump in a small town of Beaver Creek in Yukon. Imminently after the news, Mr. Bakes has handed his resignation in.
Another case of the company being involved in questionable matters was when its Richmond River Rock Casino was involved in the huge British Columbia casino money laundering scandal. During a hearing at the Cullen’s Commission investigation into money laundering, Ken Ackles, Investigations Manager for B.C.’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, stated that in 2015 the casino saw an increase of suspiciously large transactions in CA$20 bills.
Source: Wood, Graeme “Casino employees sue Great Canadian Gaming for wrongful termination”, Vancouver is Awesome, June 10, 2021
