A contentious six-year battle over mandatory retirement at the University of Prince Edward Island has drawn to a close.
In a joint statement released Oct. 12, the university and the UPEI Faculty Association announced an agreement to discontinue mandatory retirement, as well as to end all court proceedings related to the issue.
“We’ve fought against this discriminatory policy from the beginning and are pleased the employer has now decided to abandon this fight, and that the university’s resources — financial and otherwise — will now be redeployed to make UPEI an even greater university,” said faculty association president Betty Jeffery.
Six employees at UPEI, including five members of the faculty association and one university support staff person, had brought complaints to the PEI Human Rights Commission over their forced retirement when they turned 65.
The commission concluded in two separate rulings that the mandatory retirement provisions contained in the collective agreement were discriminatory, and that the complainants were owed hundreds of thousands of dollars for lost income, pension contributions, general damages and costs.
UPEI was at the doorstep of contesting the commission’s settlement decisions to the province’s court of appeal. That appeal will no longer proceed, and the faculty association has now received compensation for legal costs.
The six employees were rehired in 2010, but the question of their compensation remains.
According to the joint statement, the university “will make good faith efforts to resolve the issue of compensation for these employees, and is hopeful a resolution will be reached in the near future.”
If the parties cannot arrive at agreement, PEI’s Supreme Court will adjudicate the claims.