October 22, 2021
Bell will be mailing out the personalized retroactive pension indexation adjustment statements to most qualifying pensioners from October 22nd to October 25th along with the Notice from Koskie Minsky. For some specialized cases, the statements and notice will be sent later.
Bell has provided a special 800 number to a contact centre and information sessions you can attend for further information. Your specific info session will be outlined in your statement.
Additional information can also be found on the website of Koskie Minsky LLP, one of the law firms acting for the Class, at https://kmlaw.ca/cases/bell-canada-indexation-pension-plan-class-action/
July 21, 2021
The Court has approved the implementation plan proposed by class action counsel.
After a hearing held July 9th, the Court approved the implementation plan proposed by class action counsel, including a retroactive payment to all class members and future entitlements, as well as the motions for approval of legal fees and other matters. The Court’s Reasons for Decision are available here.
As noted in previous updates, pensioners do not need to take any steps to receive their payments. According to counsel, the retroactive, one-time payment is expected to be sent directly to all class members in Octover. All future pension benefits payments after that date will reflect the indexation increase of 2% for the 2017 year rather than 1%.
This judgment only applies to the pensioners of the Bell Canada plan, which includes those from Expertech and Bell Mobility for example, but does not concern the pensioners from the other plans we are monitoring, i.e. BCE, Bell Aliant and Télébec.
May 13, 2021
The Notice to all class members (participants to the Bell pension plan) has now been approved by the Court and is in the process of being sent to pensioners.
As previously reported, the Ontario Court of Appeal rendered a decision in February 2020 in
favour of the plaintiff. Since then, the plaintiff and defendant and their lawyers actively
worked to come up with proposed settlement terms and a notice to class members outlining
those terms. The Notice to all class members (participants to the Bell pension plan) has now
been approved by the Court and is in the process of being sent to pensioners.
Here is a link to the Notice:
https://kmlaw.ca/cases/bell-canada-indexation-pension-plan-class-action/
As outlined in that Notice, a hearing date intended to approve the implementation plan,
including legal fees, has been set for July 9 th . The Notice provides instructions to class
members on next steps. As the notice indicates, if the payment plan is approved by the
court, class members will not need to take any steps or "sign up" for the Action in order to
receive payment. If a class member wishes to object to any of the settlement terms, the
notice provides instructions on how to do this.
https://kmlaw.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Notice-Objection-Form-FINAL.pdf
April 26, 2021
The court has scheduled a conference of the parties on April 30th. This conference is intended to approve the form of a notice to be sent to class members with a description of the settlement terms, including the amount of the legal fees. Assuming court approval, that notice will then be sent to all class members also informing them of the hearing date at which any class member can make submissions on the settlement terms.
The hearing is intended to give final approval of the settlement of the class action. We will continue to monitor and update this as soon as we hear the outcome of the April 30th conference.