Officers facing pension cuts
Public sector unions claim government should not make changes unilaterally.
Officers in Canada are facing a good chance that their pension benefits will be cut. In the province of Ontario, the government announced it would be making changes to its post-retirement benefit program in order to “bring the Ontario Public Service retiree benefits in line with other public sector organizations.”
The first change will increase the time you must have on the job to be eligible for benefits. Members who do not have 10 years of pension credit as of January 1, 2017 – in either the Public Service Pension Plan or the OPSEU Pension Plan – will have to have at least 20 years of pension credit before retiring.
The government will be moving to a “premium cost sharing” arrangement, whereby any eligible member who has not begun to receive a pension by January 1, 2017 will be required to pay 50% of the premium costs to participate in the retiree benefit plan. These changes will not impact current Ontario Province retirees.
As part of the 2014 budget, the federal government stated that it will be transitioning from currently paying 75% of retiree benefit costs under the Public Service Health Care Plan to equal cost sharing.
Canadian governments have set their sights on public sector employee compensation as a part of their ongoing attempts to reduce budget deficits. Public sector unions, however, have responded they may not accept such changes and will seek legal advice on whether the government can make them unilaterally.