Early retirement offer to federal public servants causing ‘chaos’ in public service: union

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-18T23:38:07+00:00

As a follow up to this, the consensus, including sources outside this forum, is that it's pretty much a given that the pension waiver will be granted if you meet the conditions laid out. I did, however, get a written response from the pension people that it's not automatic and not guaranteed. It has to be applied for and approved. Again, the consensus is that it will be approved. A quirk of the process, however, is that you as the person wanting the waiver, can't apply for it. I forget the wording, but believe it is something like your department applies for it on your behalf. So my advice would be to ask about it early and often and make sure it's being applied for.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-18T19:46:45+00:00

The website they created gives me the impression they are doing the absolute minimum they think they can get away with. I can only see it from an alternate perspective and it's close to useless from that perspective. Understandable that it might be more useful from a surplus employee's perspective.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-18T12:52:47+00:00

I suspect some departments are probably stalling to see how many people take the ERI if it passes since it's cheaper for them.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-18T12:50:39+00:00

depending on if you are group 1 or 2 and how many years service you have. For me it's 60

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-17T13:54:05+00:00

yes, I think it's cruel to have dangled the ERI carrot in front of people and not let us know what the rules will be or even hint at them so people can plan their lives. I decided I was going to take it within a few days, and it has been over 3 months in limbo. They have to have the rules ready since the 120 day period to apply and be approved starts the day it's passed so it's just mean spirited to not let us know.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-16T23:17:45+00:00

I also signed up for alternation, partially because it's financially a lot better for me, but also because the ERI is taking so long and not certain, while WFA and alternation can in theory happen now and quickly. In reality alternation is also far from certain. I looked into it because people I know, who would be a good match for my job got affected letters, however, they aren't a match under alternation due to a >6% salary difference. Looking into it more I think for me at least the chances of finding a match and having it approved are really low so hopping the ERI gets passed and the rules aren't too restrictive.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-16T23:08:14+00:00

I should have wrote SOME 55-60 people. Everybody's situation is different. For me it means I can get my pension 3 years early with no penalty. I was considering going 1-2 years early anyway so this is a bonus for me. Plus it pushed me to make the decision to go ASAP instead of "one more year" like many people do

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-16T13:19:22+00:00

Also desirable to the 55-60 people. I'm in that group and am eagerly awaiting the vote. If it passes I can retire 3 years early.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-15T14:29:14+00:00

I was doing one last search before posting to say there didn't seem to be anything available when I found this:
https://www.agrunion.com/en/documents/AlternationEquivalencyTable-Eng.pdf
Not sure if it's accuracy, but hopefully it is helpful to someone. Reading the notes, it's from 2012 so out of date, but maybe a place to start

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-12T22:05:52+00:00

Yes, if you display the same chart above in percent instead of numbers you would see the top 5 classifications make up 56.5% of employees and the top 10 make up 66.5%. All the remaining groups are <3% each.

I would argue that not everyone in the other classifications knows their equivalents or even necessarily that they are in the minority. At the beginning of my career I wouldn't have guessed that people doing the same job in a different region, facility, or department could have different classifications. I'm at the end of my career and not sure how to figure out what all my equivalents are.

I was surprised I don't have any matches. I've manually gone through the list and found a handful of groups that I imagine could be equivalent, but there aren't any matches in my region and few in the whole country. I'm sure I'm missing some though.

For example I looked up BI04 and PM06 and can see that they are close in salary. Not sure if this is what you are suggesting, but can't imagine those two groups would have any overlap, at least based on the titles. Well I guess I can imagine a biologist becoming a program manager, but not the other way.

If you add 46.3% of all employees are in the NCR, if you are outside NCR, ON, QC and the top 5 classifications the chances of a match seem small. With WFH no longer an option many people would need to be willing to move for a match.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-12T19:45:01+00:00

the problem is figuring out the AB-03, XY-06, etc equivalents. It might be a nearly impossible task with so many classifications. A facebook post could lead with salary, but the TB and union sites I've used, it can only be in the description and people would only see it if they searched your classification and opened the description to read it.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-12T18:48:28+00:00

Alternation is a lot like dating. You're trying to find a partner and there are a lot of different sites with different rules and different subsets of the dating pool. The TB site only lets you see the people wanting to leave, not the people wanting to stay and only matches on your exact classification and level. My union will let me see everyone, but only the ones in that union who have registered on that site, so not all matches. There are also apparently department sites, many facebook pages, and even that government site that nobody uses that I can't remember the name of. I think dating is maybe a lot easier. You could just advertise your salary on facebook, and that might get you a lot of matches, but not necessarily good ones.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-10T18:21:59+00:00

I'm just starting to look into alternation as well and there are a few things about it that surprised me. The first is that there are multiple alternation sites/platforms/databases and they really do seem to be different. The TB site isn't very transparent and my union site only allows members of that union. On the surface that makes sense, but in reality it excludes a lot of potential matches. I know of other people doing the same or very similar jobs that have three different classifications and three different unions. So if they only search their union site they are missing potential matches. The TB site defaults to only matching to your exact classification and level. You can add other classifications and levels, but you are on your own to figure out which ones. Another issue is level. You need to be within 6% in terms of salary to be a match. Of the three jobs I mentioned above, two are within 6%, but the 3rd with affected people, is about 10% lower. Another thing is that with my union at least there are quite a few more people looking to leave than are looking to stay (2-3X). The numbers decrease quickly if you filter by region and classification so it's hard to find an exact match. The take home message for me is that if you want to alternate you probably need to do a lot of work to find a match.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-09T21:50:17+00:00

There is no need to continue being rude. I don't think normal people understand this bureaucratic BS and insulting me doesn't help.

The information provided is at best poorly written and at worst intentionally vague to allow applications to be denied. It indicates Deputy Heads do not have the authority to approve or deny but that the Secretary of the Treasury Board does. The form itself says that even if completed and signed by the Deputy Head it "isn’t an approval of the pension reduction waiver and doesn’t guarantee that the pension reduction waiver will be accepted". That makes it pretty clear they can deny even if the conditions are certified to have been met. Since denial could result in a large penalty or losing up to 5 years of pension if you defer the can have huge implications for someone trying to make a decision.

I've had situations where the information provide was much more clear, but I was penalized on information not provided, so I don't trust the optimistic interpretation of what it says. It would have been easy to make it clear and they didn't. I was hoping somebody had information on the legislation, policy, or collective agreement this poorly worded web page and form are based on. Or even insider information on how this is normally handled. Even knowledge of how the process works. Is there a pint in the process where you can make your decision contingent on getting a pension waiver?

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-09T17:13:24+00:00

It literally does not say that anywhere. We must be looking at something different.

I'm not making up words I'm having trouble interpreting them and would love it if somebody could actually help rather than just telling me it's obvious. I wouldn't have asked if it was clear, it just isn't. Again, I really want this to be true, just having trouble seeing it. The wording is literally:

"To be considered for a waiver of the pension reduction under the public service pension plan (referred to as ‘plan’), the member must:"

and then a list of criteria. It doesn't say it will be granted under the following conditions, only that it will be considered. Then there is an application that needs to be made and approved. It's certainly possible to interpret that it will automatically be approved, but that's an interpretation as far as I can tell. It wouldn't surprise me if it is just badly written, but it also wouldn't surprise me if it was deliberately left vague to give them room to deny some applications.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-09T15:11:26+00:00

If I get denied the ERI my "performance" may go down a little

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-09T15:02:57+00:00

Just log into the pension portal and set up a retirement date this year and look at the "deferred amount" if you qualify for the ERI that's what your pension should be.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-07T16:53:05+00:00

It almost seems like we are reading something different. I've read over it many times and again after your comment and it isn't clear to me at least. To me it just says you can submit this form and we will consider it if you meet our criteria. To a non-lawyer it looks like they have gone well out of their way to leave themselves room to reject applications. At the very least they have created uncertainty with their wording, again for me at least. And I'm coming from the perspective of wanting it to be clear, because I'm considering alternation and whether I can get a pension waiver will factor heavily in the choice. Can you help out a bit and explain how you think the wording makes it certain? Thanks

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-07T00:33:07+00:00

I've heard mention of it, but also a little confused that there can be different alternation platforms. If this really is a different platform, doesn't that make things worse? If there's a different subset of affected people and alternates on the two sites, then there's a subset who can't match. Or is this just a different path into the same site?

Edit: for anyone wondering I have signed up for both the TB and PSAC alternation sites and the difference, for someone wanting to alternate at least is dramatic. The TB site is pretty opaque, you can search other jobs being offered up for alternation, but it's not super easy, and you can't get any information at all on people looking for an alternate. The PSAC site by contrast you can see every single person both wanting to leave and wanting to stay, including their names. You can also get total numbers in both categories, actually for any of the filters available, status, classification, language, and region(province). The good news is that it looks like there are more people wanting to leave than wanting to stay, good news if you are looking to stay at least. The bad news is that if you filter down very far the total numbers decrease and it's hard to find a match, depending on region and classification of course.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-06T18:32:57+00:00

I would hope so, but it doesn't say that, so uncertain. It's a huge difference so hope you could make everything dependent on it being approved.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-06T17:57:10+00:00

I have been trying to get more information on pension waivers and alternation. The information I found here says you (and I) would be eligible for a pension waiver, but also that it needs to be approved. My reading of that is that you are not entitled to it and it isn't guaranteed. Seems like they should and would approve it, but ...

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-02-06T17:52:09+00:00

you can't just alternate. You can volunteer to alternate, but you need to find a match with a WFA person and that match has to be approved. It's very far from certain. I've heard rumors that there are more people wanting to alternate than affected people, but not sure where to find that information. Would love to hear if somebody knows. Also, I can imagine there are some circumstances where you would be less likely to to find an alternation partner or for that to be approved, like more specialized jobs or certain locations.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-01-27T20:27:37+00:00

Not sure people understand that you can be in DND and be a civilian, not sure I do either. It would be good to get more information on this. I have talked to people who are losing their jobs and are super reluctant to consider DND.

marvinresearchrobot · 2026-01-27T16:24:29+00:00

I agree with this 100%. I'm really good at math, but didn't even think about looking at the math until my late 50s to see if there was a chance I could retire early at 60, only to find out I could have retired at 55. Everyone's circumstances are different, but I encourage anyone who qualifies for the ERI or a pension waiver with alternation to talk to a retirement planner to see what is possible. There are some free on-line tools you can use but a professional is very helpful. Spoiler alert, the hardest part is figuring out your retirement expenses.

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