The court did not decide that Pizza Nova delivery drivers were employees. It decided there was enough common evidence for that question, and several related employment standards issues, to be decided through a class proceeding.
In Cervantes v. Pizza Nova Take Out Ltd., 2024 ONSC 7019, a delivery driver brought a proposed class action on behalf of roughly 1,800 to 2,000 drivers. The claim alleged that drivers were labelled independent contractors even though the way the delivery system operated made them employees. If that allegation is ultimately proven, the consequences could include claims for minimum wage, vacation pay, overtime, public holiday pay and statutory contributions.
The proposed defendants included the franchisor and a large group of franchisees. At certification, the court was not deciding the final employment status of every driver. The question was whether there was some basis in fact for common issues and whether a class proceeding was the preferable way to resolve them.
The court found enough common evidence in the standardized delivery model, template agreements and direction that drivers be treated as contractors to permit common questions about employment status to proceed. It certified the action in substantial part, although aggregate damages were not certified at that stage and the class definition required revision.
That distinction is important. Certification is a procedural threshold, not a finding of liability. Still, it can materially change the risk around a contractor model. Once a court accepts that worker status may be resolved on common evidence, the dispute is no longer necessarily a series of small individual claims.
For businesses that rely on contractor classifications across a franchise or network model, the case highlights why consistency can create both operational efficiency and litigation exposure. Standard contracts, common instructions and common systems can become evidence supporting a common issue.
The practical question is therefore broader than what an agreement calls the worker. Businesses should understand how work is actually assigned, controlled and paid across the system. Those operational facts may be more important than the contractor label if the relationship is later tested against employment law standards.