City of Toronto, security contractor trade blame in $32M lawsuit defences
· Toronto Sun
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While they’re both on the receiving end of the same litigation, security contractor One Community Solutions and the City of Toronto are not putting up a united front.
Both are fighting a proposed class-action lawsuit, and while they’re both disputing the allegations, in their statements of defence each is suggesting that the other would be responsible should a court find any wrongdoing took place.
Security guards formerly employed by OCS are seeking $32 million in the proposed class action against several defendants, including the security company, Toronto, and the Toronto Transit Commission.
They are alleging a list of labour law violations, including not paying workers extra for overtime, sending out paycheques late , and not providing severance pay.
Those employees, referred to as community safety team members or CSTs, were pulled off the job at the end of January when OCS was warned by the Ministry of the Solicitor General to immediately stop deploying them in roles that meet the definition of security guard work, OCS confirmed in its statement of defence and counter-claim.
The city then terminated its contract with OCS. Since 2020, OCS had won $40 million worth of contracts to patrol city properties associated with homelessness, such as shelters and TTC stations.
That figure does not include money OCS would have made from third parties that run homeless shelters on behalf of the city.
The class action has yet to be certified.
What OCS says of the allegations
In its defence, OCS denies allegations made by its former employees, who are represented by the Taylor Mergui Law Group, such as wage theft, wrongful dismissals, negligence, and other labour violations.
“CST members are an ethically diversified Canadian residents (sic) whose racial diversities reflect the multicultural mosaic of Ontario’s peoples,” the document says.
“Contrary to the plaintiff’s allegations, at all times, OCS treated all of the OCS workers with honesty, respect, and in a proper manner.”
However, if the former employees are owed statutory wages or termination pay, OCS argues the City of Toronto and TTC acted as a “common employer” and should be on the hook. “Any alleged systematic issues” with the CST model would also be the responsibility of the city, OCS alleges.
OCS is making its own claim against the city and the TTC, including for an alleged breach of contract.
What the city and TTC say
In their own statement of defence and counter-claim, the City of Toronto and the TTC “deny the balance of the allegations” made by OCS employees and insist they were never common employers of the guards.
“Pursuant to the city contracts, OCS was fully responsible for every OCS personnel’s activities, works, services, acts, and omissions,” the city’s defence says.
The city denies it broke the law in ending its contract with OCS and, while insisting the allegations in the class-action lawsuit are false, says its co-defendants should have to pay should a court rule otherwise.
David Fogel, one of the lawyers for OCS and its owners Damion Dunston and Jason Segree, pointed the Toronto Sun to its statement of defence when asked for comment, saying the company’s position “is stated comprehensively” in those documents.
The City of Toronto said beyond what’s in its legal filing, it has no comment “at this time since the matter is before the courts.”
OCS is also making a claim against co-defendants that it says provided it with “placement workers.” OCS’s lawyers deny that those defendants were in fact part of the company, as Taylor Mergui’s lawsuit alleges.
‘Paid in cash with taxpayers’ money’
In an emailed statement, Ryan O’Connor and Gurpreet Farmaha, who are handling the class action at Taylor Mergui, pointed out that in its defence, OCS “admits that many CST workers were ‘paid in cash’ with taxpayers’ money.”
While arguing that OCS’s defence is “full of inaccuracies,” Mergui’s statement said it is “notable that OCS accepts that the city and the TTC exercised operational and financial control over the CST workers staffing shelters, encampments and drug injection sites.”
“We agree – the city was directly involved in the administration of the CST program and it is legally responsible for the employment standards sins of its contractor,” the statement said. “The city should not benefit from the political credit of providing security at safety-sensitive sites but bear none of the burden when its contractor mistreated CST workers and acted as an unlicensed security agency right under the city’s nose.”
The City of Toronto and TTC “are no better” than their contractor, the statement added. City hall “was paying millions to a company to provide security and safety, but the city now claims it had no idea who was actually providing it.”
While its Toronto operation appears to be defunct, the Sun has been told that OCS has maintained a contract with the County of Simcoe, working out of Barrie. Neither the company nor the county have responded to questions about the status of this contract.