In November of 2017, Unifor formally filed a complaint with the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (“FSCO”; now called the Financial Services Regulatory Authority) about the adjustments that GM made to members’ credited service under the GM Canadian Hourly Pension Plan (the “Plan”). In its complaint, Unifor alleged that GM was not administering the Plan in accordance with the Pension Benefits Act (the “Act”), its regulations, FSCO’s rules or the Pension Plan, contrary to s. 87 of the Act.
On September 25, 2018, the Deputy Superintendent of Pensions issued a “Notice of Intended Decision” (“NOI”) in which it advised the GM and the Union that it would not issue the orders sought by Unifor. In the NOI, the Deputy Superintendent concluded that the facts did not support a finding by FSCO that the Plan was not being administered in accordance with the Act or the Plan text.
Unifor subsequently filed a Request for a Hearing with the Financial Services Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) on October 24, 2018 in which the Union disputed FSCO’s NOI. The Union sought orders from the Tribunal requiring GM:
- to provide the Union and affected plan members with the documents related to the changes to their credited service;
- to provide each affected plan members with an opportunity to have the changes to their credited service reviewed; and
- to have those credited service adjustments reversed where appropriate.
Since July of 2019, Unifor has been seeking the production of documents by GM so that Unifor would have the information required to proceed with the hearing in this matter before the Tribunal. When GM refused to provide these documents, Unifor sought an order from the Tribunal requiring them to provide the documents. The Tribunal issued that order on October 25, 2019, after finding that the documents sought by the Union were “arguably relevant” to the dispute and that it was reasonable and proportionate to require GM to produce the documents.
Once the Tribunal issued the production order, GM disputed the amount of time necessary for it to gather and disclose the documents to the Union. GM claimed that it would take 4.4 years to produce the documents sought by the Union. The Union sought a further order from the Tribunal imposing a deadline on GM to provide the documents, and one was issued on April 15, 2020, ordering GM to provide the documents by March 15, 2021.
GM subsequently disputed this timeline, claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic was preventing them from doing the work necessary to compile the documents. The Tribunal granted GM an extension and eventually imposed a revised deadline of July 14, 2021 for GM to produce its documents to Unifor.
Unifor continues to pursue any and all avenues to obtain a resolution to the dispute with GM over the adjustments it made to the credited service of plan members. Unifor will continue to provide updates on this matter as they become available.
Please continue to visit our webpage at unifor.org/en/gm-pension for more information.
