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Leaves and Loads – York’s Pension Plan

Winter 2013

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Purpose of this Seminar

• Maternity leave

• Parental leave

• Leave of absence without pay

• Reduced loads for staff

• Sabbaticals

• Irrevocable reduced loads for faculty

• Other

Disclaimer: information provided in this seminar assumes you are in the York University pension plan.

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Timing of lettersThe Pension & Benefits office has to be informed by your department of any leave, reduced load, etc., before we can produce a letter for you

Ideally Human Resources should be informed two to three months prior to a leave, reduced load, etc., so we can send you the appropriate letter prior to the leave

Often we are informed after the leave, reduced load, etc., has begun

Once we are informed we send the letter by Canada Post and by e-mail if we have an e-mail address for you

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TimingYou will have two weeks from the date of the letter/e-mail to respond and/or provide cheques to us, if required

It is imperative you follow the necessary steps and provide any payments within the time allotted

Cheques received after the University closes in December can not be deposited and recorded for the prior year

Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) will not permit pension contributions to be back dated to a prior year

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Maternity leave

• Maternity leave is a maximum of 17 weeks.

• Academic employees remain on payroll during this period so pension contributions continue to be deducted from the pay.

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Maternity leaveFor staff that are eligible for the maternity leave top up

• Once we are notified of the maternity leave we will send you a letter outlining what we require

• Payroll sends your Record of Employment (ROE) electronically to Employment Insurance (EI)

• Once you have provided us with the EI documentation we inform Payroll to begin paying the top up

• We require the EI documentation prior to the 10th of the month in order for us to have the top up paid in the current month

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Maternity leave continued…• The top up is paid for a maximum of three months as the

payment(s) is/are made prior to the start of the parental leave

• Pension contributions are deducted off the payment(s) to ensure the 17 weeks is provided with full credited service in the pension plan as long as documentation is received prior to the end of the calendar year

• If we receive the documentation after the University closes in December the credited service can not be provided.

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Maternity leaveFor staff that are not eligible for the maternity leave top up

• Once we are notified of the maternity leave we will send you a letter that informs you of the cost to maintain pension while on maternity leave

• You will be given two weeks to send a cheque to us for the full cost of the employee contributions so the employer will match those contributions

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Parental leaveStaff are provided with the cost to maintain pension contributions during the parental leave in the maternity leave letter. You will need to provide the cheque to us for the current year at the beginning of the parental leave.

For individuals taking a parental leave only – a letter will be sent to you once we are notified and you will be informed of the cost to maintain pension contributions – a cheque is to be provided to us within two weeks of us sending you the letter

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Leave of absence without pay (LOAWOP)

Once we are notified of the leave a letter will be sent to you outlining the cost to maintain credited service in the pension plan

The employee is responsible for paying the employee and employer pension contributions.

You will be asked to provide a cheque dated November 1, for the amount owing for the current year

The cheque is to be provided to us within two weeks of us sending you the letter

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LOAWOPIf the leave has you returning in the next year and you have maintained pension contributions we will automatically deduct the remaining contributions off the two pays following your return

During a LOAWOP the salary used to determine pension contributions does not change

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Reduced loads for staffThis type of reduced load is when the employee has requested and received approval to reduce the number of hours worked per week

Once we are notified of the reduced load we will determine the cost for you to maintain full credited service in the pension plan

You may elect to maintain full credited service and contributions by paying the differential amount in employee and employer contributions at 100% base salary. If you elect this option your employee contributions will be deducted at 100% base salary and your portion of the employer contributions will also be deducted each month.

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Reduced loads for staffExample assuming a reduction of salary and hours to 80%

100 % monthly salary

80% monthly salary

Difference owed by employee

4,458.33 3,566.67

Employee pension contributions

203.63 160.50 43.13

Employer Pension contributions

209.74 165.32 44.42

Total for EE to pay 87.55

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SabbaticalsWhere the sabbatical is at less than 100%:

You may elect to maintain full credited service and contributions by paying the differential amount in employee and employer contributions at 100% base salary.

If this option is elected your employee contributions will be deducted at 100% base salary and your portion of the employer contributions will also be deducted each month off your earnings

In the event there is a salary change the pension contributions will be adjusted accordingly – typically the month following a change

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SabbaticalsWithin five years of your Normal Retirement Date and it is a full year sabbatical:

A letter is sent to you regarding the pension contributions which provides you the opportunity to declare this as your final sabbatical

If you declare this is your final sabbatical you can maintain your pension contributions at 100% and the employer will then maintain their contributions at 100%

The employer does not maintain contributions at 100% unless you maintain your contributions at 100%

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Irrevocable reduced loads (IRL)Available to academic employees from age 55 onward

You can be on IRL for a maximum of ten years or mandatory receipt of pension – whichever is less

The IRL can begin at any percentage reduction of pay and can be further reduced during the IRL

You can not increase your load – it can only be reduced

You pay pension contributions based on your reduced earnings

The employer pays the employee and employer pension contributions to maintain full credited service

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Irrevocable reduced loads (IRL)You will not see the ‘extra’ employer pension contributions on your pay advice

This is a manual process that our office has to do

On your pension statement you will see the ‘extra’ employer pension contributions

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Your responsibilitiesIt is important that you provide your department with sufficient notice and meet any requirements that are outlined in a collective agreement or Standard Operating Procedures

It is your responsibility to check your pay advice to ensure any and all deductions that need to be made are taken each pay

You can check your pay advices on HR Self Serve

The link to HR Self Serve is: https://hrselfserve.yorku.ca/psp/HR91PRD/?cmd=login&languageCd=ENG&

Use your passport York login information

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Other• When you are on a paid sick leave pension contributions

continue to be deducted off the pay

• In the event you run out of sick credits you are then responsible for paying pension contributions

• In the event you apply for and are approved for Long Term Disability (LTD) the employer will make employee and employer pension contributions on your behalf

• If you remain on LTD for an extended period the pension contributions may increase based on the lesser of the increment in the Consumer Price Index (Canada) and salary increases had you remained active

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ASK HRMost answers to your questions can be found in the ASK HR database. Please try accessing this tool before contacting our office. The link is: ASK a Human Resources Expert | York University

For example:

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ASK HR

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ASK HR

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Need to contact Pension & Benefits?

• E-mail askpb@yorku.ca

• Call 416-736-2100 extension 27572 (askpb) – the phone line is open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Monday to Friday. For Fridays in June, July and August the phone line closes at 3:00 pm.

• Please have your employee ID ready when you call us.

• Any form or document that we may need from you can be completed, scanned and emailed to askpb@yorku.ca.