Former workers of Aveos win their battle against Air Canada
Global News
A Quebec Superior Court judge ordered that Air Canada must compensate former Aveos workers for the loss of income and employment, as well as for the loss of social benefits.
Air Canada violated federal law by not keeping its maintenance centres in Montreal, Winnipeg and Mississauga operational during the collapse of Aveos a decade ago, the Quebec Superior Court ruled Thursday in favour of thousands of former workers.
“Air Canada did not take reasonably serious steps to comply with the law after the closure of Aveos,” wrote Judge Marie-Christine Hivon, who concluded that there was a “continuous violation” of the law from March 2012 to June 2016.
Nearly 2,200 former workers are affected by the outcome of the class-action lawsuit. The vast majority of them were based in Montreal.
In a video message posted on his Facebook page shortly after the ruling, Jean Poirier, the Aveos union representative at the time of the company’s closure, said he was “very, very moved.”
“We won! We won against Air Canada. We won the whole thing. David won against Goliath. A 14-year battle, friends.”
He asked Air Canada shareholders, who could appeal the ruling, to start “on a new foot” and settle the case.
In her 154-page decision, Judge Hivon ordered the airline to compensate workers for the loss of income and employment, as well as for the loss of social benefits.
Air Canada will also have to compensate the workers for “stress, questioning, decrease in self-esteem, insecurity, feelings of injustice and loss of enjoyment in life.”