Air Canada Hit by Court Ruling After Ex-Maintenance Workers Sue

Air Canada may be forced to pay at least C$100 million ($73.2 million) to about 2,200 former workers after a Quebec court issued a ruling in their class-action lawsuit against the airline.

The amount would cover lost wages, lost benefits, and moral damages related to the closure of Aveos, the carrier’s former maintenance contractor. Judge Marie-Christine Hivon released her decision on the calculation of damages this week.

The plaintiffs, the majority of whom are in Montreal, were Aveos employees when it locked out workers and ceased operations in 2012. They argued that Air Canada violated a federal law that had required the airline to maintain those maintenance operations where they were located.

Hivon first ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor in November 2022. Air Canada has said it plans to appeal that judgment, but an appellate court judge delayed the matter until the damages phase of the original trial was completed.

Based on initial calculations, the minimum the airline would be forced to pay is around C$100 million, according to lawyers for the former workers.

But the airline said it’s too early to attach a dollar figure to the case. The claims process will take place on a case-by-case basis.

“We have appealed the first part of the judgment on the principle of liability. We are considering whether to add points to the second judgment, which will not apply anyway if our appeal in the first part is successful,” Air Canada spokesperson Christophe Hennebelle said by email.

“The judgment merely sets out a calculation method and then calls for individual proof for each member. It is completely silent on the quantification of the total amount. Any assessment at this stage is therefore pure speculation.”

Photograph: Air Canada airplanes at Vancouver International Airport (YVR) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on Thursday, July 11, 2024. Photo credit: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg