Wayne Hanley, the leader of Canada’s largest private sector union says some of the EI surplus of $52 billion should be used immediately to safeguard workers’ pension plans battered by the meltdown of the credit crisis.
“The Employment Insurance contributions paid by workers built up that surplus and continue to,” says Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.
“Now use that surplus, as well as a portion of future EI premiums to help workers’ pension plans weather the financial crisis and to improve the funding of those plans.”
Even before the onset of the current dive in the stock market, in the first quarter of 2008 alone the asset base of workers’ pension plans eroded by more than $100 billion. As a result, many plans have been put in jeopardy, or have fallen below the level of assets required under statutory requirements. The result could mean a cutback in what pensioners were expected to receive, or a massive hit to employers to infuse more cash to bring pension fund assets back up to required levels, or both.
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