Financial pressures often prompt an employer to review the benefits provided to employees and former employees in order to determine whether changes can be made that would decrease the cost of those benefits. Other times an employer will make changes to the benefits it offers in order to attract new employees or to better respond to the demographics of its workforce. This paper explores some of the more common changes employers make in respect of the benefits they offer to active and retired employees and highlights the more significant restrictions on an employer’s ability to implement those changes.

This paper was prepared for The Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia course on Pension & Benefits: Critical Issues and What’s Often Overlooked held on May 25, 2011 in Vancouver, BC.