Denny's workers sue company for $10 million

50 temporary foreign workers claim B.C. restaurant cheated them of wages, violated contract

Fifty temporary foreign workers are suing the restaurant chain Denny's in British Columbia for $10 million.

The workers, all from the Philippines, were hired through the Canadian Temporary Foreign Worker Program to work at Denny's as cooks and servers.

They allege the company didn't pay back recruitment and processing fees they had to pay to come to Canada and cheated them out of wages.

The workers sought help from Migrante-BC, an organization representing temporary workers from the Philippines.

According to Migrante-BC spokesperson Jane Ordinario, the workers had to pay a $6,000 processing fee, for which the restaurant was supposed to reimburse them under the terms of their contract.

Also, many of the workers haven't been given the hours they were promised under the contract and those who complain have been threatened with dismissal, states the suit filed by lawyers Charles Gordon and Christopher Foy.

The suit also alleges the chain refused to pay some of the workers' airfare to the Philippines (a condition of their contract), hasn't paid overtime owed to some workers and one manager threatened to have a worker sent back to the Philippines if she went to work for a competitor after her contract was up.

Denny's released a statement on Jan. 12 saying the company is a strong supporter of workplace ethics and will investigate all of the allegations.

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