Capabilities— ReTaken on Strength (RE-TOS) Calculation System

What are the situations the system can calculate?

Length of Calculations

The system can calculate arrears for temporarily struck off strength (T-SOS) periods of any durationfrom 1982 to the present and provide estimates on future periods up to 2020.

Calculation Statement

At the end of each calculation, the system can present the following information in a window, send the information to a file or to a printer:

• the employee identification information;
• the user's response to all system-generated questions;
• the calculation for each pay period;
• a summary of deduction arrears for each year;
• a summary of the total deduction arrears owing;
• a summary of the total time period of absence;
• a summary of the total pay periods and months required for the recovery period; and
• the input required by the Regional Pay System for the collection of arrears in the format for the Regional Pay System.

Pay Cycles

The system can calculate arrears for employees paid:

• bi-weekly, current (pay cycle 7C);
• bi-weekly, arrears (pay cycle 7B).

Changes in Salary and Allowances during T-SOS Period

The system can accept an unlimited number of changes in salaries and allowances in a T-SOS period. It also accepts all rate bases and changes in rate base for both salary and allowances in a T-SOS period.

Multiple T-SOS Periods for an Employee

The system can calculate multiple T-SOS periods for an employee at the same time and provide a summary of arrears of all the periods combined.

Regulation Compliance

The system automatically applies all regulations as dictated by the Superannuation Administration Manual and the Insurance Administration Manual.

Authorized Salary Rate

The system uses the authorized salary rate for the calculation of death benefit, disability insurance and long-term disability insurance.

Single and Double Rate Superannuation

The system will automatically apply the appropriate regulations and calculate single or double rate superannuation as applicable.

NOTE: Because calculations are usually not performed prior to RE-TOS, a problem has been identified where the leave without pay (LWOP) includes Double Rate Superannuation. This occurs because immediately on RE-TOS, the regular pay resumes and deducts superannuation contributions at low rate, if the employee had not reached the low rate maximum for the current year, prior to commencing the LWOP. Even though the pay and pension agent includes the additional low rate contribution amounts in the appropriate place in the RE-TOS application, this results in the system determining that a person has reached the maximum low rate earlier in the LWOP period than would have happened if the LWOP had not occurred. As a result, double rate contributions are being calculated at "high rate" earlier in the LWOP period than they should have been, resulting in the employee being over deducted for this period. Since this is caused by timing rather than system error, there is no way to amend the system itself to account for the discrepancy in the calculation.

To address the issue, where there is double rate LWOP only, pay and pension agents must ALWAYS use the "YTD Low Rate Superannuation" from the RE-TOS snapshot so that the contributions will be calculated at high rate on the date they would have, if the LWOP had not occurred. When element 798 is updated to include the amount of "low rate" contributions calculated by RE-TOS, the system will produce the message "PDR62 - If transaction is processed, master element involved would exceed its limit." At that time, the pay and pension agent must review the deductions taken after RE-TOS and recover accordingly the underdeduction of high rate contributions.

Disability and Long-term Insurance

The system will apply the various rate changes while calculating the employee and employer share for disability insurance and long-term disability insurance.

These calculations are only valid for organizations whose rates are dictated by Treasury Board, with the exception of Canada Post and Royal Canadian Mint, whose rates are not dictated by Treasury Board, but whose calculations and rates have been included in RE-TOS. These organizations must use the code "POD" and "MNT" respectively, in order to access the appropriate calculations.

Data Input Editing

The system edits all data entered for accuracy and compliance with the various rules and regulations, and displays to the user any errors detected for correction before proceeding with the calculation process.

Bilingualism

The system and all on-line documentation are fully bilingual. Please note that there is no printed manual.

What are the situations the system cannot calculate?

The RE-TOS Calculation System will not be able to perform calculations in the following circumstances :

• other pension plans;
• pay period structures different than 7B or 7C;

  • For 7B Accounts Only:

    Due to the system limitations, ensure that the current pay period for 7B is equal to the current pay period for 7C in the Regional Pay System before entering a leave without pay period to the RE-TOS System.

    For your information, refer to the pay processing schedules using the following link:
    PWGSC-Pay Processing Schedules

• periods before 1982 and after 2020;
• other insurance plans;
• and incomplete data (the system's internal verification feature will notify the user when mandatory data is missing).