B.C. plan sponsors will have lots of questions to consider as the provincial government prepares to introduce a new employer health tax. “It’s going to be interesting, because the employers, obviously, are going to be looking at that employer health tax as a cost of doing business,” says Avinash Maniram, a partner and senior consultant at PBI […]
Members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 561 in Coquitlam, B.C., have voted to transfer active employees from the School District No. 43 non-teaching pension plan into the British Columbia Municipal Pension Plan. Terms of the deal include a four per cent wage increase to cover the difference in pension contributions between the two […]
Looking ahead at economic uncertainty and legislative changes around employment standards, 2018 will be a year of complexity at the bargaining table for both employers and unions, according to a new report by the Conference Board of Canada. The report, which also draws from the organization’s latest compensation planning outlook survey, found that the top three negotiation […]
The Canadian Pacific Railway Co. and the Canadian Pacific Police Association have ratified a new five-year agreement, which includes paid compassionate leave that employees can receive as a loan. When employees have a personal situation, such as very ill parents, a child or a spouse, they will be able to take up to three months without […]
Unionized employees at a Quebec-based aluminum smelter are rejecting a proposed change that would move them to a two-tiered pension arrangement from a defined benefit plan. The Syndicat des Métallos/United Steelworkers Local 9700 says employees at the Bécancour, Que., smelter “categorically reject a discriminatory, inferior pension plan for the next generation of workers.” The proposed change would keep defined benefit plans […]
The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 561 is calling on the Coquitlam, B.C., school district to reverse its decision to cut post-retirement health benefits for all permanent management employees who retire after Dec. 31, 2017. Earlier this year, School District #43 employees received a notice announcing the year-end closure of its post-retirement health and dental benefits […]
A new collective agreement reached by United Steelworkers members at mining company Goldcorp Inc. in Timmins, Ont. includes improvements to pensions and benefits. Some 280 members of the union’s Local 7580 voted on Monday to ratify the agreement, which will provide pension benefit increases of more than eight per cent over its three-year term, to $66 […]
More than 500 members of United Steelworkers Local 1568 who are employed by Canadian Nuclear Laboratories have reached a collective agreement that includes moving into a new union-trusteed, multi-employer pension plan. However, the trustees of that plan, the Canadian Energy and Related Industries pension plan, are also aiming to transition to a target-benefit arrangement under federal jurisdiction by […]
One year after the federal government unveiled legislation that would allow federally regulated employers to offer target-benefit pension plans, the proposal has stalled in the House of Commons but it’s apparently still very much alive. “The gist of Bill C-27 is to permit target-benefit plans to operate as a design option alongside defined benefit plans […]
While defined benefit pensions often make headlines when a company is struggling, there has traditionally been less of a focus on retiree benefits plans. The issue is paramount, however, in Sears Canada Inc.’s bankruptcy case. After filing for protection under the Companies’ Creditor Arrangement Act in June, Sears sought to suspend payments under its post-retirement […]