Written by: Irvin Schein

In Bennett v. Sears Canada Inc., the Court of Appeal recently dealt with an interesting case involving a former employee claiming post-retirement health and welfare benefits.

In this case, Bennett was employed by Sears Canada Inc. which offered some of its employees such benefits upon retirement provided they qualified.  One of the qualifying requirements was that the employee “must retire from active employment with 20 years or more continuous full-time service”. 

Bennett began working at Sears on a part-time basis in October, 1977.  She did so until May, 1999 when she became a full-time employee.  Approximately 10 years later, Sears terminated her employment due to corporate restructuring.

As a result, during the 32 years that she had worked with Sears, she had worked on a part-time basis for about the first 22 years and on a full-time basis for about the last 10 years.

In 2005, four years before termination, she inquired of the Human Resources Department in the store in which she worked about her eligibility for pension-related retiree benefits.  That request was conveyed to an employee in the HR Service Centre at the Head Office of Sears in Toronto. 

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