November 10, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Greetings,
Jazz held a Benefits Rate Review meeting with all
their employee groups October 22 & 23, 2008. Roy Dawson is the representative
for the independent consulting firm, Hewitt. They are hired by the Company to
provide financial analysis, help with negotiating rates, and they were involved
in the process when we changed to Great West Life.
Each employee group was given an individual
presentation, tailored to represent the real costs for each particular unit.
There were three parts to it;
- Why costs are going up.
- The reallocation of the costs structure.
- The costing of the plan.
They discussed the cost drivers such as our aging
work force, the increase in the cost of prescription drugs, dental trends, and
the raising cost of coverage for STD/LTD. Currently the Pilots are the only
group who are separate for Short Term Disability. We all share the cost for
Dental and Extended Health. Starting in the New Year, all groups will fund
themselves for STD/Dental/Extended Health. Life Insurance and Long Term
Disability will also be funded separately by each group, but not until it is
renegotiated in 2009.
For clarity, Jazz runs a self insured plan for
STD/Dental/Extended Health. Jazz pays Great West Life a fee to administer the
plan on their behalf. Since they are a third party, it allows our medical to
stay a non-taxable benefit. The cost is entirely funded by Jazz and its
employees. GWL only insures, (and takes the risk for) Life Insurance and Long
Term Disability and charges us a premium.
The only commonality between the different groups
is that there will be increases. How much depends on what the cost has been, and
is projected to be, for each unit. The last rate increase was April 2006, we had
a slight decrease in cost when we changed from Manulife to GWL in 2007. The
official Jazz notice laying out the details of increases will come out in
December from the Jazz Benefits department.
CAW Local 2002, Jazz
CSA/ACS & Technical Services