The Retirees' Newsletter

The Bi-Monthly Publication of the Faculty and Librarian Retirees' Association,

The University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada,

Vol VII, Issue No. 2 -- April, 1997

Issue #22

THE GREAT PENSION GRAB-BACK: THREE MONTHS LATER

IT IS NOW MID-APRIL, 1997, AND OUR MEMBERSHIP CAN BE FORGIVEN FOR FEELING BEWILDERED AND DISMAYED. In October, six months ago, we reported here that the then-new contract had included a 2.5 % increase in Minimum Guaranteed Pensions, effective July 1, 1996. The contract was duly ratified by the Faculty Association and University and its provisions put into effect.

FOR THE RETIREES, AS FOR OTHERS WHO WERE TO BENEFIT FROM THE TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT, payment of the increase was actually begun. The cheques to cover the retroactive period to last July were sent out. Then in December, 1996, many of us on the Minimum Guaranteed Pension were happy to see the monthly amount of the increase included in our December cheques.

BUT THEN, FOR THE RETIREES, IT ALL WENT SUDDENLY AND INEXPLICABLY INTO REVERSE. One day in January a terse note from the pension plan administrator told us that the whole thing had been "an administrative error", and all the money was being taken back!!

AND THAT, DEAR FRIENDS, WAS THAT! The money was indeed taken back. NO explanation was offered! NO apology was given! NO promise was made to get in touch later! NO attempt was made to reassure! It was, like,... O-V-E-R.

THAT WAS IN JANUARY, THREE MONTHS AGO. In the February issue of The Newsletter we related the sad storyas best we could piece it together. We speculated over what appeared to have happened. Nothing remotely resembling an explanation in writing has ever been offered to us, the retirees who were the brunt of this regrettable sequence.

THE MOST FREQUENT EXPLANATION noised about, has cast Revenue Canada as the villain (whether in fact or in theory has never been made clear). A "joint appeal" to Revenue Canada to "reconsider" was even said to have been sent off. At no time could I get close to determining what the real substance of Revenue Canada's alleged objection was.

Let me be very clear. We still hope, and feel confident, that this regrettable episode will end on a happy note. Indeed, as this issue neared completion, we were hearing word that "talks" are going on -- as always, of course, heavily shrouded in "secrecy" in the grand old Canadian tradition -- and that these talks may well produce a "solution".

NEVERTHELESS, A QUESTION IS BOUND TO LINGER IN MANY MINDS. Was this a proper way for the University to treat its retiree-pensioners? To formally declare an increase, then start the payment , then, after a month, to grab it all back (to all appearances for keeps), and still three months later to have offered NO direct explanation of any sort, to those affected? It would have required so little...!

SURELY THE UNIVERSITY'S RETIREE-PENSIONERS DESERVE BETTER. W.G.P.

OUR BURSARY FUND FOR NEEDY STUDENTS IS AT $25,000
LET'S BOOST IT TO $30,000 BY YEAR'S END!

DON'T UNDERSTAND OUR PENSION PLAN?
ENROLL NOW IN NORM SKLOV'S "PENSIONS 101"

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