Two decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada, Thursday morning, put an end to ten years of legal struggle to invalidate part of Bill 15, which unilaterally allowed the withdrawal of indexation from the retirement plan of many municipal employees in Quebec . Those who were already retired when the law came into force in 2014 can celebrate a victory, while the others are rejected.
On the one hand, the Court refused to hear the appeal requested by the Attorney General of Quebec, who challenged the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal rendered in favor of retirees. In its judgment of May 10, 2023, the latter recognized that the law was partly unconstitutional and that “the unilateral withdrawal of a right resulting from collective negotiation, namely the automatic indexation of the pension, without regard to the acquired rights of retirees, combined with the absence of a process for negotiation and arbitration of disputes constitute substantial obstacles to freedom of association.”
The withdrawal of this indexation has contributed for ten years to the impoverishment of retirees, since the amount of their pensions stagnates instead of keeping up with inflation. However, partial indexations had been negotiated between unions and municipal administrations.
The Court of Appeal, however, ruled that the law could be justified for active participants, therefore not yet retired at the time of entry into force, because of its objectives of ensuring the financial health and sustainability of these pension plans. retirement. Several unions had appealed this part of the judgment to the Supreme Court, which announced Thursday that it would not hear the case.
The Confederation of National Unions (CSN), which was one of the applicants, said it was disappointed. “It is not because employers are running deficits or having financial difficulties that this authorizes them to act unilaterally. It is by taking the path of negotiation and not of imposition that we manage to find solutions for the parties,” responded Caroline Senneville, president of the CSN, in a press release.
“The determination of workers in the municipal sector to make themselves heard will have made it possible to issue a serious warning to governments and employers,” declared Simon Mathieu Malenfant, vice-president-treasurer of the Federation of Employees and Employees. public service employees, in the same press release.
Further details will follow.