The CBC reports today on the proposed class action against S-Trip.
As the report notes, college-age students and recent graduates are hired by S-Trip to accompany students on group vacations as Trip Leaders. They are told to expect 14-hour workdays, but are not paid. Instead, they are referred to as “volunteers” and are given an n honorarium ranging from $150 to $300, out of which they are expected to pay for their S-Trip uniform.
As CBC explains:
The lawsuit from Ottawa and Toronto-based law firm Goldblatt Partners LLP alleges S-Trip “trip leaders” weren’t properly classified as employees and didn’t get paid at least minimum wage for the hours they worked.
The law firm believes those practices violate Ontario labour laws.
“Quite simply, these aren’t volunteers,” said Josh Mandryk, the lawyer working on the case. “This is a for-profit company; it’s in business to make money and these are its front-line workers.”
The representative plaintiff, D’Andra Montaque, supervised a group of students who travelled to Cuba in 2017 – an experience she describes as “… a lot of work, … intense, very hard and exhausting.” She received a $150 honorarium for her week’s work, from which $80 was deducted for the S-Trip uniform.
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