On the morning of January 18, an Electrical Workers Welfare Plan (EWWP) office staff member’s car was stolen. The staff member placed their workbag in their car, then went back into their home to get their children to drop them off a childcare. When they returned to the car they watched as it was driven away.
The RCMP were called immediately, and while this seems to be a crime of opportunity and not targeting this sensitive information, the car and its contents have not been recovered. Inside the work bag were documents that included name, address and Social Insurance Number (SIN) of approx. 1,481 Benefit Plan members.
On January 29, the EWWP Board of Trustees were informed of the theft and immediately began an investigation of EWWP internal practices, ordered Equifax and TransUnion subscriptions and worked to ensure affected members were notified as soon as possible.
Beginning February 1, all affected Benefit Plan members were mailed a letter informing them that their personal information may have been compromised, and offered free credit monitoring. If you were not sent the February 1 letter then your personal information was not among the information lost.
The letter mailed to affected members is posted on the EWWP website at 213pension.org/privacy
In order to take advantage of the free credit monitoring, members need to contact the EWWP office by email info@213benefits.org or phone (local) 604-571-6545 or (toll free) 1-800-368-0277.
The EWWP office and the Board of Trustees deeply regret that this happened. Policies and procedures should have been in place to ensure the security of Benefits Plan members’ sensitive, personal information. This loss of personal information should never have happened.
The Board of Trustees exercised the termination clause in the Plan Administrator’s contract, and past Plan Administrator Darcy Biln has put his retirement on hold to return to the EWWP office in the interim.
In order to dispel any rumours or false information that may be circulating, these are the facts that IBEW Local 213 members should be aware of.
- The data breach happened at the Local 213 Electrical Workers’ Welfare and Pension Plans (EWWP) office. The EWWP office is a separate business and employer from IBEW Local 213. While the offices work closely together, they are very much independently of each other.
- The EWWP administers two Trust Plans – the Benefits Plan and the Pension Plan – and is run by the Plan Administrator who reports to the Board of Trustees. The five-member board is made up of IBEW Local 213 members. The Board does not run the plan; that is the job of the Plan Administrator. These two Trusts exist because of the Collective Agreements negotiated by the IBEW Local 213.
- Not every IBEW 213 members is a Benefits Plan member. The EWWP has around 3,500 beneficiaries. The number of Benefit Plan members affected by the information theft is 1,481.
- The IBEW Local 213 office holds the security of all our members’ private information as high priority. No IBEW Local 213 staff are permitted to remove hard copy data without high level of control and accounting of the documents. All digital information encrypted and secure.
- The IBEW Local 213 Privacy Policy has been in place since long before the pandemic. It is reviewed annually, and a review was just completed in light of the privacy breach at the EWWP office.
Every member of the Benefits Plan affected is encouraged to take advantage of the free credit monitoring. As well, if you have further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact the EWWP office. Again, they can be reached by email info@213benefits.org or phone (local) 604-571-6545 or (toll free) 1-800-368-0277