[This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, which cannot be given without consideration of your individual circumstances.]

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) disability benefit is a taxable monthly payment that is available to people who have contributed to the CPP while working and who are not able to work regularly at any job because of a disability.

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Canada Pension Plan Benefits

1. Who is eligible for the CPP disability benefit?

To qualify for a CPP disability benefit, you must:

• have a severe and prolongeddisability
• be under the age of 65*[1]
• meet the CPP contribution requirements.

2. What is a severe and prolonged disability for the purposes of the CPP disability benefit?

To be eligible for a CPP disability benefit, you must have a severe and prolonged medical condition. What is important is how the medical condition and its treatment affect your ability to work at any job on a regular basis. Your condition must be expected to last at least one year or be likely to result in death.

3. What are the CPP contribution requirements?

To qualify for a CPP disability benefit, you must have contributed to the CPP while at work in:

• four of the last six years, or
• three of the last six years if you have contributed for at least 25 years.

However, there are certain provisions that may help you qualify for CPP disability benefits, even if you fail to meet these requirements. For example, you may be eligible if you stayed at home and raised children, if you applied too late for CPP disability benefits, if you are separated or divorced, if you lived and worked in another country, or if you were physically or mentally unable to apply for CPP disability at a specific time. You can obtain more information on these provision on the Service Canada website, by calling your nearest Service Canada centre, or by seeking legal advice.

4. When and how can you apply for CPP disability benefit?

You should apply as soon as you develop a severe and prolonged or terminal medical condition that prevents you from working regularly at any job.

You must apply for CPP disability in writing by printing out the main application form (ISP 1151), the consent forms, and any other necessary forms that can be found on the Service Canada website or at one of the Service Canada centers near you. Fill out the necessary forms and mail them to the nearest Service Canada office.

5. If the claim for CPP disability benefits is denied, what can you do?

If you disagree with the decision regarding your CPP disability application, you may request a reconsideration of the decision. A reconsideration is a new review of your application by Service Canada.

You must make your request for reconsideration in writing within 90 days after you are notified in writing of the decision. Your written request for reconsideration should be mailed to the return address on the decision letter.

Prepare your written request for reconsideration and include:

• your name, address, telephone number, and Social Insurance Number;
• a detailed explanation of why you want a reconsideration; and
• any new information that could affect the decision including any new medicals information or documents.

If you are still dissatisfied with the reconsideration decision, you can appeal to the Social Security Tribunal.

6. What if you are receiving a disability income from another source?

If you are receiving disability income from other sources, such as a private insurer or a provincial social assistance program, you may still be eligible to receive the CPP disability benefit. However, these other sources may adjust their payments if you are approved for a CPP disability benefit. For example, if you are receiving monthly Long Term Disability (LTD) benefits from your private insurer, once you are approved for CPP disability, your private insurer will reduce the amount of monthly LTD benefits you are entitled to by the amount you are now receiving under CPP disability. 

We are here to help navigate the CPP disability application and appeal process.  Consult one of our experienced Disability lawyers at Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne and Yazbeck LLP if you are considering making a claim for CPP disability benefits or if your claim for benefits has been denied. 

* If you are aged 60 to 64 and you think you might qualify for a CPP disability benefit, you may also want to apply for a CPP retirement pension. While you cannot receive both at the same time, you may qualify to begin receiving a retirement pension while you wait for your CPP disability benefit application to be assessed, which usually takes longer.

With Parliament officially re-opened following the federal election, everyone is watching to see whether the many campaign promises made by the incoming Government will be kept. One area that was the subject of more than its share of pledges was labour legislation. After nearly a decade in power, the Conservatives left behind a raft of anti-union laws that the incoming Liberals have vowed to clean up. Based on open letters and other public statements issued by the Liberals before and during the campaign, labour lawyers and workers’ advocates expect to see the following key pieces of legislation either reformed or repealed by the incoming Government:

Bill C-377

• What it does: this legislation imposed onerous financial disclosure and reporting obligations on all unions in Canada, well beyond those required of charities or non-profits.
• Campaign promise: As an MP, Justin Trudeau opposed this Bill, going so far as to write to the Senate urging it to reject it. (Notably, the Senate did successfully defeat the legislation once, requiring the Government to ignore the rules of the Senate to finally get it passed.) The Liberals have vowed to repeal this legislation.

Bill C-525

• What it does: this legislation changed the rules for certification of federal public and private sector unions, making it more difficult for workers to certify less difficult to decertify. Rather than allowing labour boards to determine that a union enjoyed the support of the bargaining unit based on membership cards, Bill C-525 required a secret ballot vote, while failing to provide the protections necessary to ensure employers could not apply improper pressure on their workers in the lead up to the vote.
• Campaign promise: Trudeau has promised that the Liberals would repeal this legislation.

Bill C-4

• What it does: Among the many laws amended by this omnibus bill, the Public Service Labour Relations Act was amended to give the Government unilateral authority over essential services: this means the government can prohibit employees from participating in a strike on the basis that they perform essential duties, a determination typically made by an independent labour board. This law closely resembled legislation that the Supreme Court of Canada had struck down earlier this year on the basis that it violated the constitutional right to strike. Bill C-4 also amended the definition of danger in the Canada Labour Code, making it more difficult for workers to refuse to perform dangerous work.
• Campaign promise: In an open letter during the campaign, Trudeau stated that Bill C-4 “stacked the deck against workers” and promised to consult with public sector partners and “revisit” this legislation.

Bill C-59

• What it does: Bill C-59 gave the Government the unilateral authority to extinguish employee sick leave banks from collective agreements and replace them with a short-term disability program. These powers allowed the Government to effectively ignore the collective bargaining process and ensure that it succeeded in securing its primary objective in this round of bargaining. The Conservative Government went as far as to preemptively “book” $900 million in savings in the 2015-2016 fiscal year on account of this change, demonstrating its contempt for the collective bargaining process.
• Campaign promise: The Liberals have publicly opposed implementing a new sick leave regime through legislation, and have expressed their commitment to bargaining with the unions in good faith.

Workers and unions will be watching to see whether the Liberal Government follows through on these campaign promises, and to see what form the more abstract commitments will take. For example, will “revisiting” Bill C-4 mean simply restoring the former essential services regime, or will the Liberals develop a new regime in consultation with workers’ representatives?

Beyond formal legislation, the Government has also promised a more positive approach to labour relations generally. This raises its own host of questions, including:

• Will the new Government depart from the Conservatives’ eagerness to interfere in labour relations through back-to-work legislation:
• Will the Liberals take steps to establish a proactive pay equity regime in line with the 2004 recommendations of the federal Pay Equity Task Force?
• Will the Government protect the right of public service employees to do their work free from political interference?

It will take years to fully assess the Government’s ability to restore trust and respect to federal labour relations. In the meantime, workers will look for early signs that the Government will follow through on the clear commitments it made in its efforts to get elected.

[This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, which cannot be given without consideration of your individual circumstances.]

In a decision rendered on January 25, 2016, adjudicator Linda Gobeil of the Public Service Labour Relations Board concluded that the Parole Board of Canada failed to accommodate a grievor suffering from “emotional stress” in a manner consistent with the requirements of Canadian Human Rights Act.

The adjudicator found that the emotional stress suffered by the employee as a result of her proximity to a particular co-worker amounted to a disability that triggered the employer’s duty to provide reasonable accommodation. The employer was ordered to find workspace for the grievor in another building and to compensate her for lost wages and benefits during the relevant time frame.

The grievor was represented by Kim Patenaude of RavenLaw, who told the Ottawa Citizen that the Adjudicator’s decision “has the potential to broaden an employer’s responsibility to provide accommodation” and is a win for employees with disabilities, especially those with mental health concerns.  For more information, click here.

Our office hours during the holidays are as follows:

December 24 – closed at noon

December 25-28 – closed

December 29-30 – opened

December 31 – closed at noon

January 1 – closed 

Thank you and Happy Holidays.

March 8^th is International Women’s Day, a day that marks the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Not just a celebration, International Women’s Day is a call to action for all the work that remains to be done. At a time when recent reports reveal that Canadian women earn only 72% of men’s wages for similar work, it is important to reflect on the labour roots of International Women’s Day and the struggles that remain for working women in Canada and around the world.

History of International Women’s Day

The origins of International Women’s Day can be traced back to the early 1900s. At that time, work was increasingly industrialized, leading to dangerous and unfair working conditions. In response, women began organizing to demand better working conditions, including shorter working hours and better pay. In 1908, 15,000 female garment workers marched through New York City to call for these improvements. This march would inspire the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union to stage a strike to protest working conditions in the city’s sweatshops. Although this initial strike was short-lived, it led to a General Strike, which lasted for three months and brought important gains for many workers.

In 1909, the Socialist Party of America, a social-democratic political party in the United States, designated February 28 as National Women’s Day in honour of the garment workers’ strike.

At the same time, European women were struggling to achieve greater fairness and protections in the workplace. In 1910, a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen, with over 100 women from 17 countries in attendance, including union leaders and the first 3 women elected to the Finnish Parliament. At this Conference, Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women’s Office of the German Social Democratic Party, tabled a proposal for an annual woman’s day – a day for women to collectively raise their demands for better working conditions, suffrage and political representation. The proposal was unanimously approved.

As a result of Zetkin’s efforts, the first International Women’s Day was observed on March 19, 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. More than one million women and men attended rallies to mark the day, raising awareness of issues of women’s rights to work, to vocational training and discrimination in the workplace, as well as the right to vote and hold political office. Sadly, only a week after the first International Women’s Day, a deadly fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City killed more than 140 working women. This tragedy brought greater attention to the issues of workplace conditions that the garment workers had protested in 1908.

International Women’s Day became increasingly prominent in Europe and became a vehicle for the peace movement during World War I. Protesting the war, Russian women observed the day for the first time in 1913. In 1914, women around Europe held solidarity rallies on March 8. In 1917, Russian women selected March 8 as a day of protest and held a strike for “Bread and Peace”. The women continued to strike for 4 days and were joined by other protests and strikes, contributing to the forced abdication of Czar Nicholas II. The Provisional Government then granted Russian women the right to vote. March 8 was later declared a national Soviet holiday by Lenin.

In 1975, International Women’s Year, the United Nations officially sanctioned International Women’s Day and began celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8 of every year. International Women’s Day is now an official holiday in many countries around the world.

International Women’s Day – Today and in the Future

Nowadays, International Women’s Day is a day for celebrating the achievements of women. The history of International Women’s Day reminds us that these achievements include the role of women in advancing the rights of workers around the world. Women have played a significant role in the labour movement, and the radical action of working women has led to important social change.

March 8^th is also a day to reflect on the work yet to be done. In the workplace alone, issues of pay inequity, the disproportionate burden of childcare, gender-based job discrimination, and sexual harassment continue to impact Canadian women. Globally, women face significant inequalities in all areas of their lives. For example, harkening back to the roots of International Women’s Day in the activism of New York’s garment workers in 1908, the day was marked in Bangladesh this year by garment workers protesting for safe working conditions, equal pay and an end to violence against women.

All workers, women and men, in Canada and abroad, should use this day to reflect on the ways in which women’s rights and workers’ rights intersect, and how both movements can work in concert to advance the cause of equality.

[This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, which cannot be given without consideration of your individual circumstances.]

The Federal Court of Appeal recently upheld the Canada Industrial Relations Board’s decision to order binding resolution of a disputed issue in first contract negotiations between the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nations Council (the employer) as a remedy for the employer’s breach of the duty to bargain in good faith.

Paragraph 50(a) of the Canada Labour Code requires the parties to negotiate in good faith and make every reasonable effort to enter into a collective agreement. The Board concluded the employer violated that duty by failing to communicate its reasons to PSAC for refusing to ratify a tentative agreement until after the Board initiated unfair labour practice proceedings. During the Board’s hearing, the employer revealed its intent to renegotiate the tentative agreement’s employment equity provisions to give it the authority to terminate a bargaining unit member when a qualified First Nations member was available for the position. The tentative agreement already provided a preference for qualified First Nations members in employment, a principle supported by PSAC. But as the Federal Court of Appeal emphasized, the employer’s new demand was “highly unusual” and “one that would be difficult for any trade union to ever agree to.”

The Board crafted a detailed remedy including an order that, if the parties were unable to reach agreement on the issue of preferential hiring within a 60-day period, it would order a binding method of resolving that particular term of their agreement. In its application for judicial review, the employer argued that the Board’s order was unreasonable because, among other things, it bore no rational connection to its breach of the Code and interfered with free collective bargaining. In rejecting those arguments, the Federal Court of Appeal found that the order was tied to the employer’s breaches of the Code found by the Board. What’s more, “given the prospect of binding arbitration failing agreement, the remedial order issued by the Board may well have facilitated compromise and thus furthered the process of collective bargaining.”

Read the full text of the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision here. The Board’s decision is available here.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada was represented by Andrew Raven and Michael Fisher of RavenLaw.

Please note that our office will be closed on Friday, March 25, 2016 and Monday, March 28, 2016 in recognition of the Easter holiday.

As a member of a CSA Group Working Group, David Yazbeck contributed to the development of the Whistleblowing Guideline, which will be available for purchase on the CSA Group website on January 12, 2016. The Guideline sets out best practices for whistleblowing arrangements within an organization. This is aimed at the public and private sectors, as well as NGOs and voluntary organizations.

David Yazbeck is one of the leading practitioners in the area of whistleblower law. He was one of many experts or interested persons who were appointed to the CSA Group working group to establish the Whistleblowing Guideline.

The partners of Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne & Yazbeck are pleased to announce the selection of the successful 2016 Raven, Cameron, Ballantyne & Yazbeck Human Rights/Social Justice Internship candidates, Max Halparin and Samantha Dubord. Both Max and Samantha are in the second year of their studies at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. We congratulate Max and Samantha on their achievement and look forward to working with them this summer when the internship takes place.

This is the eleventh consecutive year that our firm has offered this Human Rights/Social Justice internship. Every summer, we provide paid employment to a student from the University of Ottawa Law School with placements in our firm and two social justice or human rights organizations. This year, Samantha and Max will be working with the National Educational Association of Disabled Students and a joint venture with the Canadian Council for Refugees, South Ottawa Legal Clinic and the University of Ottawa. Previous placements for our internship have included the Workers’ History Museum, International Development Research Centre, EGALE Canada, Amnesty International, the Ottawa Coalition to End Violence Against Women, the Council of Canadians, REACH Canada, and many other organizations which provide significant contributions in the areas of social justice and human rights.

Another year is drawing to a close, providing an opportunity to look back and consider the year’s victories and challenges in the labour and employment law context. 2015 was a momentous year for workers’ rights: there were several significant court judgments, as well as important legislative and political changes. Here is RavenLaw’s Year in Review, listing of the top five developments of the year:

1. Right to strike: the Supreme Court issued its new “Labour Trilogy” this year, with three judgments that elaborated upon freedom of association under the Charter in the labour context. The most significant of these cases was Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan, 2015 SCC 4, which recognized a Constitutional right to strike. Read more about this huge gain for workers’ rights here.
2. Constructive dismissal: in Potter v New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission, 2015 SCC 10, the Supreme Court clarified the test for when an employee has been constructively dismissed. The Court emphasized the importance of work, confirming that the withholding an employee’s work can amount to constructive dismissal. Read more about the judgment here.
3. Upheaval in unjust dismissal law under Canada Labour Code: the Federal Court of Appeal’s judgment in Wilson v Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, 2015 FCA 17 departed from the well-established approach to unjust dismissal complaints under the Canada Labour Code, and rejected that employees under that regime can only be terminated for just cause. The Supreme Court has granted leave to appeal the judgment, and workers’ advocates will be closely watching the results of that appeal. Read more about the Court of Appeal’s judgment here.
4. Expanded worker remedies under the Employment Standards Act: important remedial gains for Ontario workers took effect in February of this year, pursuant to amendments to the Employment Standards Act. These amendments included the elimination of a cap on recovery for unpaid wages and increases to the time limits to bring employment standards complaints. Read more about these developments here.
5. Ousting of the federal Conservatives: while this was not a legal development, there is no question that this change will dramatically impact workers’ rights going forward. The Liberal government has promised to repeal several anti-union laws passed by the Conservatives. Read more about those campaign promises here.

[This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, which cannot be given without consideration of your individual circumstances.]