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Employees were handed resignation letters and asked to sign them, lawyer Andrew Reinholdt said Friday.

“There was the feeling among the employees that if they didn’t accept the position with Ford that there wouldn’t be anything with BlackBerry,” Reinholdt said.

The lawsuit argues this amounted to a termination of employment and that employees are entitled to statutory, common law and contractual entitlements on termination.

“(BlackBerry) structured the transaction to circumvent paying the BlackBerry employees’ statutory entitlements,” it stated.

The representative plaintiff David Parker worked at BlackBerry for 14 years before being offered employment at Ford. After he accepted, he was told he would lose his years of service in the transfer, Reinholdt said.

The majority of employees affected are based in Ontario, with a third in Ottawa alone, he said.

On top of their entitlements on termination, the lawsuit seeks bad faith and punitive damages.

None of the allegations have been proven in court and BlackBerry has denied any wrongdoing.

“We have reviewed the allegations in the lawsuit, and are confident we complied with all our obligations to our employees. Therefore, we believe the case lacks merit and we will defend against it vigorously,” spokeswoman Sarah McKinney said in an emailed statement.

ejackson@postmedia.com