Prior award froze entitlement for all members
A CIVILIAN employed part-time by the Windsor police was not entitled to retiree benefits, despite a previous arbitration changing the service’s policy.
The issue was whether an unnamed civilian member who was employed as a part-time staffer at the Windsor Police Services Board until December of 2014 would be entitled to postretirement benefits beginning Jan. 1, 2015, by virtue of becoming a full-time member.
The employer, the Windsor Police Services Board, denied any entitlement as a prior arbitration award had essentially frozen the retirement entitlement for all existing members.
Therefore no new entitlements could be created, nor could existing entitlements be taken away.
The union, the Windsor Police Association, agreed with the employer that the initial award had frozen retiree benefits. However, the entitlement depended on status — so if a part-time member became a full-time member, they would be entitled to the so-called frozen status of the full-time member group.
Initial award
The initial award, heard in front of arbitrator William Kaplan, grandfathered members hired up to and including Dec. 31, 2014, into the post-retirement plan under the collective agreement.
Therefore, the police board argued both full- and part-time workers’ benefits would be frozen as of that date, and part-time employees had no entitlement.
“No one who was not in receipt of retiree benefits as of Dec. 31, 2014, could subsequently become eligible for those benefits,” the board argued.
But as the association saw it, any individual — regardless of being full-, part-time or temporary — should be grandfathered by the current collective agreement as of Jan. 1, 2015.
“If he or she became a full-time employee and would have qualified for post-retirement benefits under the current collective agreement, he or she should receive those benefits upon retirement,” the association said, adding that “The collective agreement did not distinguish between ‘members of service.’”
Kaplan sided with the police board. The initial award froze entitlements, and there was no need to distinguish between fullor part-time because the former group is the only one that enjoyed retirement benefits, he said.
“The fact is that had there been any intention to provide part-time employees with an entitlement to retiree benefits upon attaining full-time status, the award could have, and would have, clearly said as much,” Kaplan said in the decision.
“The entire thrust of the provision was to permanently cap entitlements — not to provide for future extensions,” he went on to say. “There is nothing in the award that could reasonably be interpreted so as to give part-time employees a contingent right to future retiree benefits.”
Therefore, the board’s position was upheld.
Reference: Windsor Police Services Board and the Windsor Police Association. William Kaplan — arbitrator. Glenn Christie for the employer, Jeffrey Hewitt for the union. Nov. 9, 2015.
