Arbitrator sides with police in pension plan dispute with city

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This article was published 26/03/2020 (1638 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An arbitrator has ruled the City of Winnipeg broke its collective agreement when it moved last year to unilaterally alter the Winnipeg police pension plan.

In a 61-page decision released Friday night, arbitrator Michael Werier said, “The city did not act in bad faith,” but ordered all recent changes to be reversed.

He further awarded damages be paid to the Winnipeg Police Association and Winnipeg Police Senior Officers’ Association — and their more than 1,400 individual members.

“In my view, the city breached its obligations under the agreement with respect to the pension plan and under the recognition clause in Article I of the agreement,” Werier wrote.

“The (police association) was denied its rights under the agreement to bargain for its members on an extremely important benefit, their pension… I find that the city’s arguments are not persuasive and fail to take into account the history of dealings between the parties.”

Werier ordered the city to refrain from making modifications to the pension plan, except as negotiated by the parties.

He further awarded $40,000 in damages to the labour bodies, and $400 to each member of the bargaining unit (as of Nov. 12, 2019).

Both sides had argued their cases during grievance hearings in January. At that time, the associations had sought a total of $65,000 for the unions and damages of $2,000 per member, equaling nearly $3 million.

“We are thrilled with this decision and happy that our members and their families no longer have to worry about unilateral cuts being made to their pensions,” association president Maurice Sabourin said Friday night in a release.

“As we have said all along, the changes to our pension benefits imposed by Mayor Bowman and his inner circle on city council are a violation of our collective bargaining agreement. The arbitrator’s ruling validates our position from the outset.”

There was no immediate response from city hall. Winnipeg recently approved its 2020-23 budget and the effect of Friday’s decision was not yet clear.

In November, city council unilaterally made changes to the pension plan, with the goal of bringing it in line with other civic union plans.

The city said the changes — such as removing overtime as a pensionable benefit, altering provisions for early retirement and increasing contributions to the plan from union members — would save Winnipeg $12 million annually.

The city had said it would use the savings for front-line policing and other civic programs.

In January, union lawyers said they were seeking damages due to what they called a sustained campaign by the City of Winnipeg and Mayor Brian Bowman to undermine its pension and union in the eyes of the public.

The city argued because the pension plan is governed by a bylaw, council had the right to change it.

On Nov. 21, following tense, heated debate, city council voted 9-7 in favour of altering the pension plan.

“It’s a big decision. It’s a difficult debate,” Bowman said at the time. “I’m just pleased that after talk for many, many, many years, we’re (moving on) a pretty significant public policy change — one that has been demanded by Winnipeggers for many, many years.”

The changes had been slated to take effect April 1.