Coming soon—active members one-year report

Throughout the year, we review our records to identify which of your employees have no service credited to the plan in the previous calendar year but haven’t ended their employment. If you have employees in this situation, we will send you an email between April and September. The email will notify you that we have posted the Active members with no service events in over one year report for your organization to the secure employer website.

How your hard work helps

• Having current, complete information allows us to accurately calculate and pay an employee’s benefits on time
• Avoiding delays in providing end-of-employment information will help your employees who are eligible to receive their benefit and future enrolment options on time

We must send a benefit option statement to your employees that have ended their employment and did not make contributions in one year. These employees have the option of receiving a benefit while still keeping their seniority/recall rights, if applicable.

Resources

• Active members with no service events in over one year report reporting instructions
• Section 7.8.3 of the Employer Instruction Manual
• Employee Information at Termination/Retirement (EITR) FAQ
• Employer Operations

Old Purchase of Service applications not accepted

Outdated Purchase of Service (POS) applications that you submit to us as of April 1, 2021, will be returned to you.

The Employment Standards Act has changed over the last couple of years, and so has the POS application. Please use the current POS application – dated May 5, 2020 and later – to ensure we receive correct information so that we can process your employee’s pension information. Submitting outdated applications will require us to follow up with you to submit a new, current application and cause delayed purchase calculations for your employees.

Reminder: To support physical distancing during COVID-19, we have stopped accepting paper documents for now to minimize delays and errors, and ensure the safety of our staff. You can fax a completed POS application, including your authorization in Part B, to the plan at 250 953-0421.

Resources

• Let your employees know where they can find answers to their questions and apply to purchase service. On the plan website, click Your pension, then Taking time off work and buying service.

Two ways to submit spousal information

Based on your feedback, starting March 29, 2021, we are updating the Plan Member Record Electronic form to allow you to submit spousal information for your employees who are plan members. Alternatively, you can encourage your employees to update their spousal information online through My Account.

Having an employee’s current spousal information on record with us ensures they receive the right pension options on their Members’ Benefit Statement.

For more information, contact Employer Operations.

Provide complete termination or retirement info upfront

The more information you submit through the Employee Information at Termination or Retirement (EITR) tool, the less we’ll need from you later when we are researching your employees’ files. Having complete information also ensures we make timely benefit payments to your employees.

Did you know your employees may apply for their pension in My Account? Encourage them to check out the Planning for retirement section of the plan website for more information.

Note: Remember to let us know the date within 14 days of an employee ending their employment, along with their salary and service information. We use this information for the end-of-employment statement, which the Pension Benefits Standards Act requires we provide to your employee within 60 days of ending employment.

Resources

• Reporting Employee Information at Termination/Retirement (EITR) FAQ—check out the new Are there tips for using the comments field in EITR? section
• Employer Instruction Manual
• Employer Operations

Maintain security—keep Web Services users current

Are your Web Services user accounts current? It’s important to protect your employees’ pension data online. That’s why we need you to keep the accounts up to date, which takes only minutes.

What you need to do

Throughout the year, please remove staff who no longer work at your organization from the Web Services user accounts, and update the accounts, as needed.

What we’re doing

We do a Web Services user account cleanup the third week of every month. This routine started November 2020.

If you need to reactivate an account that we have removed, the primary or secondary user can do that.

Resources

• Web Services Agreement
• Web Services—E-Handbook
• Web services user access confirmation reporting instructions—check out the new section about the monthly Web Services cleanup
• Web Services eLearning
• Employer Operations

Come one, come all to Employer Council

Join us this May for Employer Council—one of the most exciting employer events of the year. Whether you’ve attended in the past or it’s your first time:

• Enjoy this virtual event from the comfort of your chosen location (save on travel time and expenses) and day
• Connect and hear about the latest news from us—no matter the size of your organization
• Take time to pause, have some fun and be informed:
  • Share ideas, feedback and common experiences
    • Please tell us about your experiences; your voice is important to us
  • Discuss current issues and best practices
  • Hear what we are working on to support you

Council details

Dates and times

• Tuesday, May 4, 2021, from 9 a.m. to noon
• Wednesday, May 5, 2021, from 9 a.m. to noon

Registration

• Visit the secure employer website and register for your day of choice by Wednesday, April 28, through one of two links:
  • Promo box on the homepage
  • Employer Council page
• After you register for a session, you will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom link

Resources

• Employer Website

Encourage your employees to go paper-free

Going paper-free makes it easy for your employees to keep track of all their important pension information in one secure place. Having employees go paper-free can also help your organization by saving you time, money and processing effort. Learn more about going paper-free.

Pension education for your employees

If you have employees with pension questions, you can help them get answers with a pension webinar and online courses. Find out how.