RETIREE HEALTHCARE AGREEMENT  0722/09

Today, the Board of Directors, the full Negotiating Team and the Unit Reps were fully informed of a proposal that has been worked on at the Core Group level with the City.  The proposal lowers the age at which our members may retire with premium free health care coverage for themselves and their eligible dependents from the current 60 years of age to 55 years of age.  The Core Group was able to leverage the City’s financial problems in order to get the City’s agreement.  This proposal establishes an important benefit for our members and saves money for the City.  Below are the bullet points of the proposal that has been agreed to by the parties mentioned above with the City.  Your representatives have voted that this proposal will begin prior to the completion of the full negotiations process for the benefit of both parties.  The full agreement is posted at the end of this update.

• The current benefits set forth in section of 25.2 remain intact for those who are age 60 and above.  The new process will not impact their choices except that anyone retiring after age 60 who wishes to have a staggered buyout of their non FLSA time can opt to;

• Officers who retire at age 55-59 obtain the same benefits identified in 25.2 when a required number of eligible officers file for retirement at a pre-determined time prior to retirement;

• All final compensations [Furlough Days, Baby Furlough Days, Personal Days, FLSA overtime] shall be paid out at time of retirement including up to $10,000.00 of non FLSA overtime [50% of all eligible retirees fall into this category];

• On or before March 1^st of  the calendar year following retirement the retiree will receive $15,000.00 and one third of any remaining overtime;

• On or before March 1^st of the second calendar year following retirement the retiree will receive up to $20,000.00 and one half of any remaining overtime;

• On or before March 1^st of the third calendar year following retirement the retiree will receive any remaining compensation for accumulated overtime;

• These pay outs will be adjusted to reflect increases to be determined during the continuation of the collective bargaining process and will be applied retroactively.

This process allows for the obvious benefit for our members as well as allowing for significant savings for the city at a time they need it most.  This agreement allows premium free health care coverage for members and their dependants until they are Medicare eligible.

The complete agreement or Memorandum of Understanding can be found by clicking the link at the top of this page.

In addition to this Memorandum of Understanding, the City requested two additional agreements as a means of “selling” the memorandum to “their” people at City Hall.  Those two documents consist of an Impact Statement that recognizes the negotiating history of the Retiree Health Care Benefits as well as recognizing the Lodge’s goal and the considerable savings for the Employer.  The second document acknowledges the establishment of a Joint Pension Legislation Council which, when established, will mandate the City discuss pension related proposals with the Lodge, a process that has been difficult for the Lodge to accomplish when the Legislature requests to know the City’s position on those issues.  These documents are included in their entirety at the end of this post.

Both of these documents, along with the Memorandum of Understanding, show that the Lodge made no monetary concessions for the benefit contained therein.  The benefits for the Lodge as well as the City came about as a result of steadfast negotiations along with a little timely assistance of a troubled economy.  Frequently, timing is everything.

ONLINE RETIREMENT PAR FORMS  08/04/09

The Department has finally implemented the Online Retirement PAR form program that allows officers to retire electronically. This is the only way that officers can submit a retirement PAR form.

Officers need to log on to the CLEAR application page on the Department intranet site. There is one item on the actual site that is changed from the demo. The demo refers to the Personnel Division under Personnel Suite on page 1. Personnel Division has been changed to Human Resources on the live site. Members need to click on the Human Resources link to proceed. Please follow the examples in this instructional demo to properly complete the form.

Members should read the Memorandum of Understanding that outlines the newly established premium-free healthcare agreement prior to completing and submitting the completed PAR form. The filing deadline is 10/01/2009 for those officers who wish to retire between  11/01/2009 through 03/31/2010.