Part time employees can join

"Other Than Regular Full-Time" (OTRFT) employees are entitled to join the Plan and start saving for a secure retirement pension. Once you have joined the Plan, you remain a member until you leave your employment at the employer, no matter how many hours you work in the future.

If you work part time at a college or related employer, you’re what’s known as an Other Than Regular Full-Time employee. This term refers to employees who work part-time hours as well as those who work full-time hours with a predetermined end date of employment. This includes sessional employees, as well as those who work on contract and those who work seasonally.

When are you eligible to join?

Before joining the Plan, potential OTRFT members must complete a waiting period of 24 months of continuous employment. Generally, if you consistently worked part-time hours during the 24-month period in question you are considered to have completed continuous employment. Vacations and leaves of absence are included in continuous employment. This type of part-time employment is commonly regarded as a regular or ongoing arrangement. However part-time contract employment can also be considered continuous if, once your contract ends, you are expected to return to work (or the contract is expected to be renewed), as is the case with some seasonal employment.

You can also work full-time hours and still be considered OTRFT. In this case, if your service is interrupted by regular periods of quits and rehires, it is considered to be continuous. Again, depending on the arrangement with your employer, a pattern of consistent employment that has a set end date is continuous if that pattern is predictable, renewable and predefined within the 24-month period. For example, if you do not work during the summer months, but are expected to return to work in the fall, your employment is considered continuous.

Same great value as full time members

Plan members are building a predictable, reliable retirement income, which will be paid to them for the rest of their lives. By joining the Plan, you are saving for retirement and building a pension. Your contributions are tax deductible, and your pension is tax sheltered, which means you never pay taxes on your growing retirement income while you are building it.

In the future if you decide you would like to join the Plan, you will have to satisfy the eligibility requirements at that time. That is, you must have completed 24 months of continuous service prior to opting to join. If your status changes from OTRFT to full-time during this period, you will immediately join the Plan.

Calculating your pension

The contribution formula and pension calculation are the same for all members. The employer pays a matching amount of contributions equal to the member's.

For OTRFT members, adjustments must be made to convert the contributory earnings and pensionable service to a full-time equivalent.

Service

For OTRFT members, the part-time hours you accumulate are compared to the hours of a full-time member in the same employment category, then averaged. For example, if you work 12 months of the year, at half the hours of a comparable full-time employee, you will earn 6 months of pensionable service instead of 12.

Earnings

Similarly, your contributory earnings are "annualized" for the pension calculation, using the pensionable service you have accrued. In other words, your earnings are divided by your adjusted pensionable service, then multiplied by 12. For example, if your actual earnings as an OTRFT member are $30,000 working 50% of full-time hours, your full time earnings would be $60,000. This amount is your ‘annualized earnings’ which is what we use to calculate your pension.

Pensionable service and highest average pensionable earnings are the main factors in your pension calculation. Highest average pensionable earnings are defined as a member's earnings during the 60 consecutive months of pensionable service during which annualized earnings were the highest, divided by 60 (months) and multiplied by 12 (months).

Points to consider

When you join the Plan, be sure to let your HR representative know if you have any service that is eligible for purchase or that can be transferred into the CAAT Pension Plan. Consult with your Human Resources department to see if a transfer agreement exists between the CAAT Pension Plan and any of your previous employers. Since such agreements are usually time-sensitive, it is important that you notify your employer as soon as possible upon becoming a member.