I just got robbed by my employer

[sheepstache]

Once in a while a law degree comes in handy - although not sure for the cross-border stuff.

In Canada, discretionary (not legally mandated) benefits can be changed with notice.  Notice required depends on the importance of the benefit and the length of service.  Health benefits in the States seem really important and a big expense and an employer (under Canadian law) couldn't unilaterally remove these benefits without  a longish period of notice because it would be viewed as a fundamental breach of contract entitling the employee to repudiate the contract and claim constructive dismissal ie. quit and claim damages.

Timing of matching contributions would not imo be deemed a fundamental breach of contract.  Some notice should be given.  It is more of a don't po your employees issue.

Huh!  Well now I'm interested to know if it's a similar situation under US law.  I can see the practical side of this in that companies often jigger with their benefits packages--without substantially improving or decreasing it--and they don't want each adjustment to trigger full-on contract renegotiations.  But it seems so weird to me that these actually operate like bonuses rather than part of one's compensation. And it sounds like the nature of the relationship between business and employee is controlled by the government rather than the specific agreement between those two parties.  Which...I guess there could also be reasons for, but I'm still surprised.  Nonetheless, not doing what you said you'd do still when you hired someone runs into moral problems if not legal ones, but naturally the details and extent of that are things on which "honorable people may differ" as the ethicist Randy Cohen says.

[totoro]

All your working conditions can be changed with enough notice in Canada as long as you don't fall below the minimum standards in most cases.  In particular, this applies where the employer provides discretionary benefits and reserves the right to adjust these benefits in its employment contract (normally the case). 

If the change is great enough to allow for a claim of constructive dismissal the remedy is the same amount of notice as would be necessary for a termination.  The real issue is employee retention.  Turn-over costs a lot and good employees are a valuable asset.

This is not; however, true if you are part of a union and you have negotiated set terms of employment.  You will need to renegotiate these contractually agreed-upon items upon expiration of the collective agreement.

This is also not true if you are a term employee on contract.  Your contract cannot be changed prior to end of the term unless there is language in the contract to permit this.

This is also not true if prior to hire you negotiate separate terms from the employer's employment policies.  This is unusual.

For IBM, reading their union complaints page, I gather that timing of payment of the benefit was not part of the negotiated contract.