Canadian North: Pension Information

Canadian North: Pension Information

September 6, 2007 at 12:00 AM

The following information has been compiled for CAW members at Canadian North with respect to their Group Retirement Pension Plan.

CAW Members will want to consider their rights under Article 19.01 (e) of the Collective Agreement which deals with member’s ability to transfer money from their time bank into their pension plan in October of each year. Part-time and Casual members also have this option to transfer money (Article 19.01 (e)) but enrolment in the Pension Plan is optional.

Pension Plan Administrator

Manulife Financial

Enrolment

Full-time employees are required to join the plan after completing six (6) months of continuous employment with Canadian North.

Part-time and casual employees are eligible to join the plan at any time after 24 months of continuous employment.  Enrolment is optional.  If an employee changes from full-time to part-time status they must continue contributing to the pension plan.  Once employees become members of the pension plan they are not able to withdraw from the program.

Contributions

The employee is required to contribute 4% of their regular earnings. Canadian North will also contribute 4% of the employee’s regular earnings to the employee’s pension plan.  Employees may voluntarily contribute additional funds to the pension plan but contributions in excess of 4% of regular earnings will not be matched by Canadian North.

Article 19.01 (e) of the CAW Collective Agreement also permits employees to direct money from their time bank into the pension savings plan. During October of each year, employees will have the ability to transfer money from their time bank into their Company Pension Plan as an extra voluntary contribution. Such transfers shall be made pursuant to the requirements of the applicable pension plan and the Income Tax Act.

Investment Options

The pension plan is self directed and the employee makes the investment decisions (such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) for both their contributions and the contributions made by Canadian North.  Should there be no investment direction pension plan contributions will be invested in a Daily Interest account

Vesting

The Vesting of pensions normally deals with the transferability or withdrawal of savings from a pension plan.  Canadian North is currently compiling information on the vesting of the Canadian North plan and it will be released within the month.  If members have questions prior to that time they are encouraged to contact their Human Resources department for more information.

As Canadian North supplies the CAW with more detailed information this bulletin will be reissued so details of the Pension plan are contained in one location.