On June 13, 2016, Justice Francois P. Duprat of the Superior Court of Quebec rendered a historic decision that ordered IBM to pay more than $23 million to a group of 451 employees and former employees of its plant in Bromont, Quebec.
Judge Duprat ruled that IBM could not go back on a promise made to employees to pay them an early-retirement bridge benefit that they were about to become eligible to receive.
The judgment confirms that even if a company reserves itself the right to unilaterally amend its pension plan, it cannot refuse to honour a commitment to pay a benefit that employees earned through their work.
