Ontario workers over 65 could have their benefits reduced by their employers.
From now on, companies in Ontario will have the right to reduce or even eliminate the benefits of employees older than 65, based on an award by Arbitrator Brian Etherington on November 5, 2010, in the dispute of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent vs. the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA).
The award calls into question the constitutionality of the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Employment Standards Act (ESA), 2000. Arbitrator Etherington held that reducing the benefits of older workers does violate the equality rights of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but qualified the provisions as a “reasonable” violation.
He found that, although not a perfect solution, the government’s decision to allow employers and employees to retain their current benefit plans and to preserve their ability to negotiate plans best suited to their workplace was a reasonable approach to the impact that the elimination of mandatory retirement would otherwise have.