Hundreds of current and former major-junior hockey players have signed on for a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League and are seeking millions in outstanding wages, overtime pay, holiday pay and vacation pay.

Charney Lawyers PC is behind the suit against the CHL, OHL, WHL, QMJHL and the teams in those leagues and says over 350 participants have registered so far but the claim still needs to be certified by the court.

The players say that the CHL’s franchises are making millions from tickets, sponsorships and broadcast rights and argue that it should be sharing more with the players.

The suit contends that some players are paid as little as $35 a week, which is below the minimum wage in every province and U.S. state with a CHL team.

The class-action maintains that the players are employees and therefore should be entitled to minimum wages.

On Monday, the focus in a Calgary court was on access to financial information.

Last October, an Alberta court ordered the leagues to produce financial records but the teams would like to keep the information under wraps and wanted the documents sealed.

Media outlets, including CTV, applied to be intervenors to provide the financial details arguing that the public has a right to hear it as part of an open court process.

The league’s lawyer argued that opening the financial statements of all 42 teams, "would create a clear commercial disadvantage to those teams."

The plaintiff's lawyer says that the teams brought the issue to the public by providing selective information on a report that showed many teams would not survive if they had to pay players minimum wage.  The lawyer argued that all of the documents should be disclosed so the public gets the full picture.

A number of players were at the proceedings in Calgary on Tuesday and say changes need to be made to make the league better.

“I have a little brother who’s in the league right now and it’d be awesome if the league did some changes and, you know what, maybe, who knows, maybe, a little more money, maybe, he can take his time and decide what he wants to take in school instead of them pulling it all away from him right? And just more fairness for the players and more of a say right? Because I never had an agent to speak for me my whole career either so,” said Lukas Walter, former player for Tri-City Americans and Saint John Sea Dogs.

“I didn’t have the best experience playing in the league I had a few bad injuries and I feel like there needs to be a lot of changes to be done to the league in order for fairness and good treatment, being treated equally. As far as health care goes, I didn’t have a good experience I’d like to see that changed and a lot of guys' salaries and pay cheques are based off of what we do on the ice and we don’t get any compensation for that,” said Kyle O’Connor, who played for two years with the Kooteney Ice.  “I don’t think they owe me anything anymore, I am where I am today not because of them, it’s because of myself. I would like to see it changed for players coming up in the future. I think vast majority of the players are in my shoes and get injured and if they don’t have the same potential or playing that they do when they come back, then they’re not sought after as players they can make money off of,”

On Tuesday afternoon, the judge in the case ruled that more than 7000 pages of financial documents will be unsealed.

The certification hearing for the WHL action is scheduled to continue in Calgary all week and the motion for certification in the OHL action will be heard in Toronto from March 21 – 23.

For more information on the lawsuit, click HERE.

(With files from TSN.ca)