GSU staff approve Viterra pension plan

Viterra employees represented by the Grain Services Union (GSU) have approved a pension plan agreement that settles a long-simmering dispute over shortfalls in pension funding.

The affected employees, whose plan was carried over from Saskatchewan Wheat Pool into its merger with Agricore United as Viterra, voted 67 per cent in favour of the deal, which the union described Friday as “an important victory.”

Pending approval by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada (OSFI), the deal would end a dispute between the union and SaskPool dating back to 2004 over how much the company and the plan members should pay to fund the plan’s “solvency deficiency,” which the company in November estimated at about $19 million.

Under the settlement, Viterra will move all active employees in the SWP/GSU plan to what’s called a “defined contribution” plan (a personalized RRSP-style plan funded by the company and employee, as opposed to a “defined benefit” plan that guarantees set levels of retirement income based on years of service) by July 1.

Viterra said in a release Friday that it will put up $13 million in solvency deficiency payments and make any future quarterly deficiency payments to the Plan.

The company then assumes “the sole right to manage the (pension) plan into the future and the risks associated with it” and will also take full responsibility to fund all pension benefits for plan members, with “no change” to active employees’ rates of contribution.

The union had previously aired a concern that if Viterra took over full management of the plan, it would be taken out of the GSU’s collective agreement and end the joint trusteeship of the plan, which had been held jointly by SWP and GSU officials.

But GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner said in a statement Friday that the Viterra members’ new plan “will be part of their union’s collective agreement with the company.”

According to Viterra, the deal covers about 15 per cent of its active employees. The GSU said the agreement covers pension benefits for about 1,800 current and former employees.

GSU members voted on the proposal by secret ballot at meetings across Saskatchewan between Jan. 7 and 17.