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Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has challenged claims that it routinely forces employees to work unpaid overtime, with affidavits from more than 50 front-line employees who say the bank is a good place to work.

The affidavits, from branch employees across the country and from managers, were filed in Ontario Superior Court Thursday in response to a class action suit for unpaid overtime launched against the bank last June.

The court must still decide whether to certify the complaint filed against the CIBC as a class action, and hearings will be held later in the fall, a bank spokesman said.

The documents filed Thursday were affidavits from employees, managers and executives, along with some “expert opinions” on the bank's overtime policies and working conditions.

“These statements provide the perspective of employees and managers …on CIBC's overtime policy,” bank spokesman Rob McLeod said in an interview.

“The statements concern a number of things: firstly, that employees are not routinely expected to work overtime in order to complete their jobs, given that we have a strategy to fully staff our branches,” he said.

“They also show that when overtime is worked, employees are compensated, either with pay or in time in lieu.

“Employees who have issues regarding overtime have numerous internal avenues to pursue and, if these are not successful, there is an external avenue as well, for resolution,” Mr. McLeod said, referring to the right to file a complaint under the Canada Labour Code if an employment issue cannot be resolved internally.

The case has been closely watched by employers and lawyers because it may set the tone for other unpaid overtime suits. Class actions of this nature are new to Canada, but common in the United States.

The action launched against CIBC last June had sought $600-million from the bank, alleging that it didn't pay tellers and other front-line employees for overtime. It was the first of its kind in Canada, and similar lawsuits have since been launched against other large Canadian companies.

The cases have already caused ripples, said Jonathan Dye, a partner at Heenan Blaikie LLP who specializes in employment law.

“The employer community has, for the most part, looked at what their policies are. The majority of them probably had no issue. But I think anybody of any size will have taken another look at what they're doing just to be on the safe side,” he said in an interview before CIBC's statement was released.

The main plaintiff in the case was Dara Fresco, a Toronto-area teller and personal banker who worked at the bank for about a decade.

Ms. Fresco, who is still employed by the bank, had contended that, as a teller, she regularly worked between 21/2 and five hours a week above the regular hours she was paid for. Those extra hours were necessary to fulfill the basic duties of her job, yet the bank directed her “not to report any of this additional time on her timesheets and not to make any claim for overtime,” the suit alleged.

When Ms. Fresco launched the action last fall, she claimed that she was owed $50,000 in unpaid overtime.

“What is unfair is that my colleagues and I are rarely being paid for the overtime that we are working and that's just not right,” Ms. Fresco said at the time.

A similar suit was filed against the Bank of Nova Scotia in December. Law firms Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP and Roy Elliott Kim O'Connor LLP are co-lead counsel on both the CIBC and Scotiabank overtime class actions. In March, they also announced a suit against Canadian National Railway Co.

“We recognize that it's a long legal process, and this is just part of it,” Mr. McLeod said Thursday.

He said the affidavits from CIBC employees filed by the bank show that “these employees …strongly appreciate the working environment that the bank provides.”

The bank seeks to provide a flexible work environment which allows employees to take time out during the regular working day to attend to family needs or participate in community activities, he said.

“CIBC takes pride in our work environment and the flexibility we provide to our more than 37,000 employees. Our policies and practices seek to create a positive work environment,” he said.