Advisers’ $12M overtime lawsuit settled

TORONTO — A $12-million settlement in an unpaid-overtime class-action suit against BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. is now final after the appeal period expired Monday.

An Ontario Superior Court justice granted judicial approval for the settlement in July, putting an end to more than six years of legal proceedings claiming unpaid overtime on behalf of 1,800 investment advisers who worked at Nesbitt between 2002 and 2016.

Justice Edwart Belobaba’s decision said the settlement “falls within a zone of reasonableness” and notes that this case is “a first for investment advisers.”

Nesbitt has already implemented an overtime policy for the six-month supervision period for investment adviser trainees, which Belobaba said represents “behaviour modification” as a result of the class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit was launched in 2010 and was certified as a class action in 2013. It was scheduled to go to trial in April 2017, but Belobaba’s written reasons for the judicial approval said the parties settled in January.

In addition to the settlement sum, Nesbitt will pay $500,000 in administrative fees. Belobaba’s decision said after legal fees, the lead plaintiff’s honorarium and 10 per cent levy to the Class Proceedings Fund, the settlement is $7.8 million. Of that amount, $6.5 million is allocated for 705 trainee investment advisers and $1.3 million will go to 1,136 senior advisers.