Deadline approaches for Canadians to claim part of $153M CIBC settlement

The deadline to cash in on a massive Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) settlement is less than a month away.

Last year, the Canadian financial institution reached a settlement in a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by its retail employees a decade and a half ago.

In 2007, retail branch employees in Toronto alleged they were being made to work overtime without pay. Legal proceedings have been going on since, with the last update being in July 2023, when an Ontario court approved the $153 million settlement.

The former CIBC bank teller who brought the case back in 2007 is happy with these results. “This settlement is a fair compromise that will bring meaningful compensation to thousands of my fellow class members,” said Dara Fresno.

Who’s eligible to claim a part of this CIBC settlement?

According to the litigators at Sotos Class Actions, you are automatically included in the class action if you are or were a full-time or part-time CIBC assistant branch manager, ambassador or other front-line customer service employee working at the bank’s retail branches across Canada from February 1, 1993, to June 18, 2009.

CIBC is expected to pay approximately 30,000 former and current frontline retail workers to cover unpaid overtime, legal fees, and the cost of the money’s distribution.

The Class Counsel said that a major advantage of this settlement is that class members won’t have to prove their claims. This would have been challenging since some claims may arise from things that happened several decades ago.

“We believe that this settlement will put more money into more class members’ hands, a lot sooner, than would happen if the case continued to be fought,” the Class Counsel noted.

However, if you’re eligible, you will still need to submit a claim here.

The deadline to cash in on the CIBC settlement is March 25, 2024.

How much will you get and how will it be distributed?

According to the settlement’s distribution protocol, class members’ payments will vary and be calculated based on the person’s tenure with CIBC, their average hourly wage in the position they held, and any applicable limitation period.

After the claim deadline on March 25, the payments will be distributed in two parts.

Class members will first be sent a cheque consisting of 70 per cent of their relative share and the second distribution will be the remaining 30 per cent of their relative share.

The documents have not specified the dates of these distributions.

This is the second major class action lawsuit settled by CIBC in the past two years.

Back in November last year, CIBC issued a notice about reaching a settlement of $7.5 million in a class action lawsuit. The action was filed in 2011 by a customer over the calculation of certain prepayment charges on mortgages entered into across Canada, except Quebec.