Newly hired Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employees in Canada will be placed into a new defined contribution plan under a tentative agreement reached late Monday between the automaker and Canadian labor union Unifor.
New employees had been placed in a hybrid plan that was created in 2012, said Corey Verney, director of pension benefits at Unifor. Pending ratification in a vote scheduled for Oct. 16, the new DC plan will take in new employees hired retroactively after Sept. 19, when the union's previous contract with FCA Canada Inc., Windsor, Ontario, expired.
The new DC plan mirrors one established in a new contract between the union and General Motors of Canada Ltd., Oshawa, Ontario, that was ratified last month.
Mr. Varney said the hybrid GM plan has “stood empty” for the last four years as newly hired GM of Canada employees were considered supplemental employees and were not enrolled in a retirement plan. Those workers will now participate in the new GM of Canada DC plan, he said. However, FCA hires since 2012 participate in the FCA hybrid plan.
GM's C$11.8 billion ($9 billion) defined benefit plan and FCA Canada's DB plan were closed to new employees in 2012 when the hybrid plans were created, Mr. Verney said.
Further details on FCA Canada's pension plans could not be learned by press time; officials at FCA Canada could not be reached for comment.
