CBA 5.5-5.6

02. November 2018 · Comments Off on CBA 5.5-5.6 · Categories: News, Your Contract

What’s in Your Contract? Insurance and EAP

Article 5.5 covers a few insurance-related benefits, mostly for permanent civil service employees. Civil service employees working at least 20 hours per week have long-term disability coverage that activates after 180 calendar days out of work and will replace up to 50% of your lost income, up to $1000 per month.

SFUSD LTD Class 1Download

SFUSD also provides active employees with a term life insurance policy for the duration of your employment; this policy also covers dismemberment and other serious injuries that prevent you from working. Supplemental coverage for the employee and dependents is available if you are interested – the plan document has all the details.

SFUSD Life Cert Class 1Download

5.5.2.1 details the District’s responsibility for the family of an employee who passes away. Unfortunately, changes in City statutes around employee health coverage limit our ability to extend coverage for families of employees hired after January 8, 2009. The District will proactively reach out to family members to make them aware of all available benefits to help them during their time of need.

5.5.3 reflects, compliant with Ed Code, that Thanksgiving, Winter Break, and Spring Break are not breaks in continuous service for employees.

5.5.4 covers workers compensation and modified/light duty. More detail on this is contained in the Return to Work Policy.

Return to Work Program AppendicesDownload

5.5.5 provides that the District will continue paying the employer portion of all benefits while you are on a job-protected leave such as CFRA, FMLA, or using your sick leave (including donated leave):

When protected and paid leaves expire, and 12 additional weeks have passed, the District will cease paying these employer contributions.

CBA 5.5.5

5.5.6 allows for “blending” of disability payments and sick leave to retain 100% of your salary while you are on state disability leave.

The Employee Assistance Program in CBA 5.6 can provide a variety of confidential advice and assistance on financial, mental health, and addiction issues. EAP will also provide grief counselors to worksites in the event of the death of a coworker or other similar situation.

Symetra EAP FlierDownload

CBA 5.2 – 5.4

30. October 2018 · Comments Off on CBA 5.2 – 5.4 · Categories: Civil Service, Union Perks, Your Contract

What’s In Your Contract?

Articles 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4 – Retirement, Health, and Dental

Retirement
Unlike every other school district in California, classified staff in SFUSD are not part of the CalPERS system. We participate with other civil service workers in the San Francisco Employee Retirement System (SFERS). SFERS is governed by a retirement boardelected by public employees in San Francisco. The retirement board makes important decisions about how your pension dollars are invested, and how much of your paycheck is contributed to pensions.

SFERS also provides for retiree health care, which is funded by a 2-3% contribution from member paychecks in City and County departments. In SFUSD, retiree healthcare benefits are instead paid for by QTEA tax revenues and do not come directly from your check.

Civil service employees become eligible for the retirement system upon permanent appointment, or after working 1040 hours in a 12 month period. Your specific benefits vary based on your hire date, and you can get all the details of your specific benefits at www.mysfers.org. 

SFERS Plan III A8.603 (hired on or after 1/7/2012)

SFERS Plan II A8.600 (hired on or after 7/1/2010 and before 1/7/2012)

SFERS Plan I A8.587 (hired on or after 11/2/1976 and before 7/1/2010)

SFERS Plan A8.509 (hired before 11/2/1976)

2018 Retiree Health Benefits Guide

You are entitled to a yearly consultation on retirement benefits, and can also voluntarily contribute to a 403(b) planfor additional retirement savings. For more information regarding 403b and 457 Plans, please contact Guillermo Garcia in the Payroll Operations Department at 241-6114, EXT.3075.

Health Insurance
Health insurance for SFUSD employees is provided through the San Francisco Health Service System. The HSS boardnegotiates rates and coverage details on our behalf, and your union negotiates the employer/employee split with the district. 

2019 Health Benefits Guide
WageWorks FSA Form

Dental and Vision
In SFUSD, all members who qualify for health insurance also qualify for visionand dentalcoverage. You can additionally sign up for a Flexible Spending Accountto save money on taxes for your personal health care spending.

There is a lifetime maximum benefit of $750 for orthodontia, per covered person. Each year your dental insurance will cover $1500-$2000, depending on whether your dentist participates in the Delta Premier program. Coverage starts at 70% for the first year, and goes up 10% per year you consistently visit the dentist, to a maximum of 100% coverage.

How to Qualify for Health Coverage
The qualification is a little complex – so I’ll break it down into a few categories.

1. Regularly scheduled workers who are assigned 30 or more hours per week
If you are hired into a regularly scheduled position (your check does not say “as needed”) and work at least 30 hours per week, you will qualify for health insurance on your first day of work.

2. Regularly scheduled and as-needed workers who work at least 20 hours per week, on average
If you average at least 20 hours per week for all hours worked between July 1 and June 30 in a year, you will be eligible for health insurance starting the following January 1, and must sign up during open enrollment.

3. Permanent Exempt employees working less than 20 hours per week
The District will cover 75% of the employee-only cost for the Kaiser plan if you are PEX and work less than half time

4. PEX workers in Student Nutrition Services
The District will cover 100% of the employee-only cost for the Kaiser plan if you are an employee of Student Nutrition appointed Permanent Exempt and don’t otherwise qualify for health insurance. This provision addressed one of the long-standing inequities for SNS workers who were improperly assigned. No current members fall into this category.

Retiree Dental
If you would like to keep your SFUSD dental coverage when you retire, you are able to pay out-of-pocket to maintain it for 18 months. Generally, it’s a better idea to sign up for the retiree dental coverage instead.

Contract – Art. 5 (part I)

29. October 2018 · Comments Off on Contract – Art. 5 (part I) · Categories: Stand Up!, Union Perks, Your Contract, Your Rights

What’s In Your Contract?

Articles 5.0 and 5.1 – Compensation and Longevity

Article 5 is where wages and benefits live in our contract, except for leaves (in articles 12 and 13).

5.0 details the negotiated raises for the current term of the contract: 5% on July 1, 2017; 4% on July 1, 2018; 3% on July 1, 2019. Together with the parcel tax salary adjustment (more on that at our chapter meeting next week), our members will see a 15.875% increase over the three years of the contract – over 16% when you consider compound interest!

5.0.1 details the lump sum payment our members received on ratification of the contract in 2017. We negotiated a fixed-dollar lump sum payment because it provides extra benefit to our lowest-paid members, where percentage salary adjustments benefit our highest-paid members the most. It’s important that we make sure everyone gets a fair shake at affording life in the Bay Area.

5.02 details some salary adjustments for classes that have no incumbents, or did not for many years – these classes had fallen behind everyone else’s schedule, so when we hired a new shade and drapery worker the starting pay was only $17/hr.

COMMITTEE ALERT! There’s a committee in 5.0.2.4 that will start meeting soon to work on wages and hours for SNS workers. If you’re interesting in being involved, please contact Jesse Tangk so we can include you. We want lots of member representation on this committee.

5.1 Longevity Premium
To thank our most experienced members for sticking around, we have longevity premiums for members that have worked at least 10 or 15 years. At 10 years, it’s a 30 cent per hour premium, and at 15 years it’s 60 cents (up from a previous 40 cent premium). That works out to $24 or $48 per paycheck if you work full time.

New in this contract cycle, you don’t have to work a minimum schedule to qualify and previous city service counts for the 15 year level (it used to only count for the 10 year level).

Check your pay stub! If you have worked at least 10 years and are not currently receiving longevity pay, please let us know right away. The computer doesn’t always automatically set it up, so we need you to keep an eye out and report if you have a problem.

Next week we’ll look at 5.2 retirement, 5.3 health, and 5.4 dental (we get a lot of questions about these, so send me your questions and I’ll cover them in the explainer!)

CBA 4 – Translation

25. October 2018 · Comments Off on CBA 4 – Translation · Categories: Your Contract, Your Rights

What’s In Your Contract? Article 4 – Translation and Distribution

“Upon ratification… the District and Union shall cause this contract to be translated into Spanish and Chinese.”

It’s important that all of our members can read and use their contract. Because so many of our members speak and read languages other than English at home, the union and the district should provide translated versions of the contract for easier understanding. As a union, we have also discussed adding a tagalog translation to the contract.

Unfortunately, because of the cost, we have not distributed a properly translated contract since 2013. This is where we need your help: I know we have many bilingual members who can assist with translation, and we can pay for your time to do so. If you are able to help and work some extra hours, please contact Jesse Tangk, Tracy Brown, or Ken Tsui.

Article 4.2 specifies that when we file grievances or lawsuits, we do so with the English-language version of the contract.

Articles 4.3 and 4.4 cover distribution of the contract. The contract is to be posted online (see draft here) and hand delivered or sent through school mail to all members. A copy of the contract is also provided to all principals, site administrators, and new hires.

We are currently waiting to resolve a couple of changes in Articles 8 and 9 based on new state laws, and the final calculation of the Prop G salary supplement, before we send the current contract to the printers.

Next week we’ll start in on Article 5 – Compensation and Benefits. It’s the biggest article of the contract, so I’ll deal with it in pieces.

« Older articles