Delay in class-action lawsuit brought against Wal-Mart by Que. employee

MONTREAL (CP) - Quebec's Superior Court has delayed handing down a decision about whether a former Wal-Mart employee can go ahead with a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 190 workers who lost their jobs when the retail giant shut their unionized outlet. Workers at the Saguenay, Que., store became the first Wal-Mart employees to unionize since a Windsor, Ont., outlet was briefly accredited in the 1990s.

Wal-Mart closed the Quebec store before the workers could obtain a collective agreement.

The class-action lawsuit calls for Wal-Mart to pay up to $20,000 in compensation to each of the store's workers for damages resulting from the store's closure.

Lawyers representing Wal-Mart argued Monday that Quebec Superior Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case. They said it should be up to province's labour relations board to deal with the lawsuit because it relates to elements in the Quebec Labour Code.

"The essence of the litigation surrounds the right to unionize and the rights and obligations of the employees," Alexandre Buswell, a lawyer for Wal-Mart, told the court.

Buswell pointed out that the labour board had already dealt with complaints stemming from the decision to close the outlet.

On Sept. 16, the board ruled that Wal-Mart didn't prove that the unionized store was in financial trouble when it closed last spring.

The union had argued the closure of the Saguenay store, 250 kilometres north of Quebec City, was designed to intimidate other workers who might want to unionize.

Lawyers representing the employee who filed the lawsuit told the court Monday the class-action lawsuit wasn't being filed under the province's labour code, but under its charter of rights and freedoms as well as its civil code.

The judge is expected to rule on Wal-Mart's request in the coming days.