• Training, technology – new markets (wind, solar, vdv) - we must be aware of the client’s needs.
• The owner should be confident that there will be a drug-free workplace. We need to leave the customer saying they will use us again.
•  A telephone system in the union office with all voice mail and no person is depersonalized.
• A committee will meet to develop language to address problem members on the job that could lead to 3 strikes and you are out if the problems persist. This language must be such that progressive discipline is possible without being faced with "Duty of Fair Representation."
• If 10% of the construction members are bad actors on the job, the numbers total 30,000. If 10% are allowed to dictate policy and 90% accept it, bad policies are created.
• The use of cell phones on the job for personal calls lowers productivity.

There will be future reports on this meeting as the committees reach conclusions.

Laid-Off Workers Eligible for Payout of Pension Surplus

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that, pursuant to Ontario pension legislation, a surplus in a defined benefit pension plan must be distributed when the plan is partially wound up. Employees who have been permanently laid off are therefore not required to wait until the plan is fully wound up in order to be eligible for distribution of their share of the surplus.

The case arose after a plant closure, Monsanto Canada laid off 146 employees, triggering a partial wind-up of the company’s pension plan. The surplus was estimated to be $19.1 million. 70(6) of the Ontario Pension Benefits Act states that on a partial wind-up of a pension plan, members, former members and other persons entitled to benefits under the pension plan shall have rights and benefits that are not less than the rights and benefits they would have on a full wind-up of the pension plan on the effective date of the partial wind-up.

According to the Superintendent, Monsanto was required under this provision to distribute surplus assets to eligible employees. Ontario’s former Conservative government sought to enact legislation amending the Pension Benefits Act making it easier for employers to lay claim to surpluses in their pension plans. However, following a ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal in favour of the Monsanto employees, the government withdrew the proposed amendments.

The Supreme Court of Canada has announced that it will not entertain an appeal from a decision that employees covered by a group insurance policy were entitled to a share of the proceeds received by the employer as a result of the insurance company’s demutualization.

The employer, the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, was required under a collective agreement with the Institute’s Staff Association to provide long-term disability and life insurance plans. The Institute purchased a policy of group insurance and a portion of the insurance premiums was paid by the Institute and the remainder by members of the Staff Association.

In 1999, policyholders accepted a recommendation by the insurance company that it demutualize, i.e., change its status from that of an entity owned and controlled by its policyholders to an entity owned and controlled by shareholders. The conversion required that the company issue shares and cash to existing policyholders, which included the Institute. Accordingly, as the designated policy owner, the Institute received 62,467 shares as well as cash for policies, which it held on behalf of the employees. It later sold the shares for over $1.3 million. The Association, claiming that its members were entitled to over $825,000 of the monies received by the Institute, brought a court action to force the Institute to disgorge the funds.