New defeat for GCM retirees: the Administrative Labor Court rejected the request for review

The Administrative Labor Court rejects the request for review by retirees of Groupe Capitales Médias (GCM) against the CSN and Unifor unions. According to them, the first instance decision was tainted by a fundamental defect likely to invalidate it, but the judge decided otherwise.

The spokesperson for the retirees, Pierre Pelchat, said he was not surprised by this decision. Discussions will take place in the coming days with their lawyer, Me François Leduc, to determine the continuation of the case.

“Our position has always been to get to the bottom of things to clarify this,” said Mr. Pelchat.

“It is certain that the two decisions we received from the Court have a considerable impact for us, but for all retirees in Quebec. We will be able to play in pension funds much more cheerfully on the side of employers and certain unions,” he reacted.

With the termination of defined benefit pension plans, retirees have lost up to 29% of their pension, in addition to seeing their group insurance plan disappear.

Last March, administrative judge Line Lanseigne ruled that, contrary to what was claimed, the unions did not fail in their duty of fair representation, which led the retirees to file a request for review.

Arguments

“The applicants for review essentially allege that the assessment of the solvency of the schemes as analyzed by the Court at first instance is erroneous, that the scope of the grievances filed in 2015 was not correctly assessed and that the decisions of the associations were vitiated by the conflict of interest in which they found themselves,” we can read in the decision of Judge Myriam Bédard which was rendered on November 8.

Even if retirees wanted to continue their pension plan to avoid losses, a buyer would have had to be found.

“However, none of the potential buyers agreed to take this risk,” wrote the judge.

“The plaintiffs’ claim that by relying on these “false premises”, the Court of first instance rendered a decision affected by a substantive defect cannot be accepted. All the arguments raised were analyzed, processed and decided in light of the detailed evidence submitted to the Court at first instance,” she asserts.

The latter goes on to say that it is not the role of the Tribunal to reassess the evidence. In total, 249 complaints grouped into four typical cases were covered by this request.

On October 30, the four associations of retired unionized employees of Le Soleil, Le Nouvelliste, Le Quotidien and La Voix de l’Est asked the Québec Ombudsman to investigate Retraite Québec following the termination of their retirement plan.

According to the complainants, “Retraite Québec in no way respects its mandate to ensure the financial security of Quebecers when we observe the fate suffered by thousands of retirees, whether retirees from the GCM newspapers, Sears or the White Birch,” they emphasize in their request.