(March 2 – 10:30 ET) – Over 1,000 pensioners and employees of the former National Trust Co. say they continue to seek an equitable resolution to the $140 million pension surplus withheld by Bank of Nova Scotia.

A group of pensioners has organized as the Association for the Equitable Recovery of the National Trust Pension Surplus, in an effort to get the bank to deal with its concerns. It says, from 1985 until the Scotiabank takeover in 1997, National Trust took, and the bank continues to take, a pension contribution holiday. It is seeking the return of the surplus to pension contributors.

AFTER says it has been ignored by bank executives in its repeated formal requests to discuss the issue. It says that since the takeover of National Trust, Scotiabank has refused to deal with the former National Trust employees, and has maintained unilateral control of the surplus in the National Trust Pension Plan.

At Scotiabank’s annual shareholders’ meeting held last year in Calgary, AFTER says it was assured of fair treatment by Scotia’s chairman and CEO, Peter Godsoe. Instead, AFTER accuses the bank of stonewalling them.

“Through stalling tactics and refusing to meet with us to negotiate, the bank is the big winner and continues to boost its profits on the backs of these pensioners and employees. In the end, the average employee who has given years of service is the loser”, said Ed O’Brien, a former long-term employee and current pensioner. AFTER says in the meantime upwards of 35 National Trust pensioners can be expected to die each year.

AFTER members who are also Scotiabank shareholders plan to attend this year’s annual meeting to again raise the issue.