[Media Release] BlackBerry Class Action

Nelligan O’Brien Payne LLP has commenced a class action against BlackBerry Limited (“BlackBerry”) on behalf of a group of BlackBerry’s employees working in Ontario and across Canada.

BlackBerry arranged to transfer over 300 employees across Canada to a business partner. Only after employees accepted employment with the business partner, BlackBerry informed the employees that they had resigned their employment. BlackBerry provided resignation letters for the employees to sign and dictated their last date of employment. BlackBerry stated that the transfer is not a sale of business, meaning the employees will lose all of their years of service.

BlackBerry’s actions amount to a termination of the employees’ employment. This entitles these employees to statutory, common law, and/or contractual entitlements on termination. BlackBerry has stated that it will not pay BlackBerry employees any of these entitlements, despite the fact that employees lose all of their years of service.

BlackBerry has breached its duties of good faith and honesty, and has knowingly misled the employees. BlackBerry structured this transaction in such a way as to avoid paying these employees their statutory entitlements.

We seek damages for the plaintiffs for minimum provincial statutory entitlements on termination, contractual entitlements on termination, and/or common law entitlements on termination. We are also asking for bad faith and punitive damages, as well as costs.

Plaintiffs in the class action include individuals who were employees and/or dependent contractors of BlackBerry Limited in Canada, and who were offered and accepted employment with the business partner.

BlackBerry has given letters of resignation to employees to sign. We strongly discourage employees from signing such letters. Employees can contact our office if they have any questions.

For more information and updates on the class action, please visit www.nelligan.ca/BlackBerry.