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Employers are required to remit pension contributions to OPTrust
for all Plan members. This includes contributions for all pensionable earnings
as well as for certain leaves of absence (LOA) where contributions are mandatory
under the Employment Standards Act.
Required contributions for regular or LOA service that are not remitted to
OPTrust are referred to as “missed mandatory contributions”.
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Note! If OPTrust identifies a period of service for which missed mandatory
contributions are owed, we will notify the employer of the amount due, including
applicable interest. If the required contributions are not remitted on time,
additional interest will be calculated. For more information, please see missed
mandatory contributions in the Procedures section.
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Situations that commonly result in missed mandatory contributions include the
following:1) Administrative Error
- The employer did not commence contribution deductions from the member’s
payroll effective as of the plan membership date (PMD). The contributions
commenced after the PMD, and no catch-up of contributions was made for the
missed period.
- The employer failed to remit contributions for a particular period when the
member was receiving pensionable earnings. Therefore, pension contributions are
insufficient to support the pensionable earnings for the period.
- The employer remitted contributions to the wrong plan, either to the Ontario
Pension Board or another Plan in error.
2) Salary Increase
- Retro Salary – Pension contributions were not deducted on retro salary
increases as a result of a grievance settlement or reclassification of job
position resulting in a higher salary.
- Top-Up Salary – The member received top-up salary and no contributions were
deducted for the top-up salary portion. The employer is responsible for both
employee and employer contributions for the top-up portion.
3) Leave of Absence (LOA)
- An LOA (paid or unpaid) that was less than 30 days and member did not make
pension contributions for the period of the leave.
- Maternity Leave of Absence (MAT LOA) when the member elected to make
contributions from sub-allowance and no contributions were submitted for the LOA
period.
- MAT LOA commencing January 1, 1999 for which the member did not make an
election not to contribute. Contributions for periods of statutory pregnancy and
parental leaves are deemed to be mandatory under the Employment Standards Act.
4) Pension Bridging
- When a member has been granted a leave of absence with pay pursuant to a
bridging benefit and no contributions were submitted for the bridging period.
5) Long-Term Income Protection (LTIP)
- If the member was on LTIP and contributions are missing for periods prior to
1990. All post 1990 LTIP contributions are based on a salary escalation factor;
prior to 1990, contributions are calculated based on the employees’ actual
salary rate.
The employer is required to remit both the member and employer share of missed
mandatory in-service contributions for the following reasons:
- The plan text requires the employer to remit all mandatory contributions.
Deduction and remittance of contributions on all pensionable salary are the
responsibility of the employer.
- The plan text requires contributions to be remitted within 15 days of credit
accrual. Credit accrual is immediate at the Trust for mandatory contribution
cases
- Taxation and T4 implications for regular pension contributions are the
responsibility of the employer. Therefore, the member may not remit funds for
the missed mandatory period directly to OPTrust
Revised March 31, 2004
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