The Superior Court of Justice certified this class action on December 17, 2024, following a hearing on November 13 and 14, 2024.
You can read the decision here.
Certification means that the case can now go ahead as a class action against Pizza Nova and all 141 Pizza Nova franchisee stores for the claim that they conspired to violate the Employment Standards Act by treating all delivery drivers as independent contractors, instead of employees. This means that the court accepted an argument that Pizza Nova could be considered a joint/common employer of all the store delivery drivers, and therefore also be responsible for their entitlements as employees. Pizza Nova is not appealing this decision.
Additional claims were certified against Pizza Nova, and the four franchisees for whom Juan Cervantes (the plaintiff) personally worked. The court declined to certify these additional claims against the other 137 franchisees because of a technical legal argument that Mr. Cervantes does not have an ability to sue those 137 franchisees directly. Mr. Cervantes is permission of the court to appeal this part of the decision. If permission to appeal is not granted, the Superior Court of Justice held that additional delivery drivers can to be added to the lawsuit to act as representative plaintiffs against additional franchisees for whom they worked, subject to further court approval. More information will be posted about this at a later date.
The franchisee stores are seeking leave to appeal the court’s decision to certify. The two motions for leave to appeal will be considered together by the Divisional Court during the week of June 9, 2025.