International Railroad Discussion > Panama Railway US RRB

Does the Panama Railway fall under the US Railroad Retirement Board jurisdiction?

Mike Root
Madras, OR

Short answer. No

mgwsy1978 Wrote:
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> Short answer. No


Wouldn't make sense.....it's a railroad in Panama operated by Panamanian employees (with a US parent, but that's irrelevant). So, any retirement obligations will be met under Panamanian law.


Related question - how do CP and CN relate to RRB? Just their US employees? How is it split apart legally?

chs7-321 Wrote:
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> mgwsy1978 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------

> Related question - how do CP and CN relate to RRB?
> Just their US employees? How is it split apart
> legally?

That would be a very good question.

It is a reasonable question given that until 1979 the Panama Railway was if not completely at least predominately located on "US" soil the United State Territory of the Panama Canal Zone. But the bottom line is the Panama Railroad was never found by the US Railroad Retirement Board to be a "covered employer".

Canadian citizens employed on railroads in the US pay US RR Retirement tax and receive USRRB benefits. US citizens who work on railroads in Canada are NOT covered by USRRB. It really boils down to where an employee is "headquartered" if in US, covered by USRRB, if in Canada not covered by USRRB.

Example CN's Winnipeg to Thunder Bay line passes thru about 50 miles of Minnesota train crews are Canadian go to work in Canada terminate in Canada and are NOT covered by USRRB. CN has a section crew based in Minnesota and these employees are covered by USRRB. The signal maintainer covering the US segment is Canadian and headquartered on Canadian side - even though he partially works on US side he is not "headquartered" in US so not covered by USRRB. Dual citizenship is not uncommon in this area due to limited population and lots of cross border marriages and family ties.

Years ago I visited the Buffalo NY terminal regularly and was amazed at the number of Canadian citizens working for US road on the US side and was told the reverse was also true. More than a few of the operating employees actually had seniority dates on each side of the border.

Things along the Canada-US border used to be much more informal.

George

Geep Wrote:
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> chs7-321 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > mgwsy1978 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
>
> > Related question - how do CP and CN relate to
> RRB?
> > Just their US employees? How is it split
> apart
> > legally?
>
> That would be a very good question.

Very simply, you are an employee of Soo Line Corp. (CP) or Grand Trunk Corp. (CN). That organization makes the payments to the RRB, Pays all the bills and payroll, taxes etc for the US operation and and when they are done pays a dividend to the Canadian parent company. Look at the subsidiaries STB filings sometime. Even though all the locomotives will be painted for the Canadian parent eventually, each US subsidiary actually owns locomotives, and the parent and subsidiary have to bookkeep operation of the others equipment.

For many years, employees working in British Columbia for the Great Northern and subsequently the BN were paid in US dollars and contributed to the RRB. Starting in the 1960's, rules on both sides of the Border were tightened up regarding working in a foreign country. For a long time, this simply meant that Canadian citizens working for BN in Canada had separate seniority districts and could not "bump" into the US.

Finally, during the Reagan years, someone did an audit of the RRB contributants, and discovered a small percentage were Canadian citizens working for several US railroads with trackage in Canada.

They were instantly dumped from the RRB pension scheme, and many were long service employees who would face hardship if denied pension benefits. Some have said that President Reagan himself made the decision to kick the Canadians out.

A Seattle based representative of the railroad clerks union BRAC went to bat for the Canadian employees, and won them entitlement up to the time of the decision to exclude them from the RRB.

At that time, representatives from the BLE,UTU and other railway unions in Canada set up a group retirement fund for the affected employees, including lump sums for prior members in the RRB from that fund.

I really think that the RRB did a disservice to their Canadian contributors by simply dumping them rather than negotiating a settlement. Much of the credit for making the best of a bad situation goes to the gentleman in Seattle that took the issue to court on behalf of his Canadian co-workers.