In February 2017, the City of Brook Park, Ohio, passed an ordinance calling for the City to pay hospitalization and/or medical insurance benefits to a group of retired employees in an amount that equated to $100 per month. Lodge 17 of the Fraternal Order of Police, which represents the City’s police officers, filed a grievance…
Terry Esser was a police officer with the City of Peoria, Illinois. In June and October 2013, Esser injured his back while at work. Esser eventually had surgery but was unable to return to work as a police officer. In September 2014, Esser filed an application with the pension board for line-of-duty disability pension benefits,…
The Hartford Police Union represents the rank-and-file sworn members of the Hartford, Connecticut Police Department. The health insurance clause in the agreement between the Union and the City describes in-network and out-of-network benefits, co-payments, lifetime maximum benefits, and other insurance benefits. The contract language specifically provides that “the City may provide health insurance benefits by…
Steven Garris was a fire lieutenant with the Village of Lake Zurich in Illinois. On March 1, 2012, Garris participated in an exercise called “Personal Escape Bags Inservice.” The exercise involved the use of rappelling equipment designed to assist firefighters escaping from buildings. While performing the exercise, Garris sustained a broken ankle. Garris’s injury was…
The Albany Police Officer’s Union represents police officers and some other employees working for the City of Albany, New York. Since the late 1980s, the City consistently reimbursed the Union’s active members for their Medicare Part B monthly premiums upon their retirement. In October 2008, the City sent a notice to all retirees of various…
Litigation over the level of retiree medical benefits granted by a variety of labor contracts illustrates the care that needs to be taken with the crafting of contract language governing post-retirement medical insurance. The litigation involved the City of Sea Isle, New Jersey, which had labor agreements with an FOP lodge (covering rank-and-file officers), a…
The last contract between the Kitsap County Deputy Sheriffs’ Guild and Kitsap County, Washington was effective from 2008-2009. Under that CBA, deputies were not required to pay for their own health insurance premiums, but were required to pay 10% of their dependents’ premiums. During negotiations for the 2010-2012 CBA, the County proposed a shift in…
From Maryland Question: Can you poll your members if they use the health care provided to them by the State or by another source (retiree benefit from another jurisdiction, spouse /partner) without violating any laws concerning privacy (HIPAA, ADA, ACA)? Answer: We’re not health insurance experts, but our take on this would be that so…
When the Town of Athol, Massachusetts unilaterally increased copayment amounts for medical services, Local 1751 of the International Association of Fire Fighters challenged the decision through the filing of a grievance. An arbitrator concluded that changes in copayments were a mandatory subject of collective bargaining and that the Town violated the contract by making the…
In 2012, the Illinois Legislature passed a statute eliminating the statutory standards for the State’s contributions to health insurance premiums for members of three of the State’s retirement systems. In place of those standards, the statute required the Director of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services to determine annually the amount of the health…
The Macomb County, Michigan Professional Deputy Sheriffs Association represents corrections officers in the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department in the classification rank of correctional officer. In January 2012, a law became effective requiring Michigan’s public employees to make co-payments on health insurance. While negotiations were ongoing between the Association and the County for a new contract,…
Public safety employers seeking financial relief have more than occasionally sought to reduce retiree health care benefits. Those reductions have in turn resulted in grievances, which in turn have prompted responses by employers that since retirees are not covered by the collective bargaining agreement, the grievances are not arbitrable. Most courts have required employers to…
The City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Professional Firefighters Association are parties to a contract that contains retiree and active employee health care provisions. On July 1, 2004, the City modified the health insurance plan provided to members and retirees. The Association filed a grievance with respect to the modified plan, alleging that the modified…
The City of Omaha, Nebraska suffers from difficult long-term financial prospects impacted in part by the rising cost of healthcare benefits for various active and retired City employees. Before May 18, 2010, an assortment of collective bargaining agreements and ordinances required the City to offer 34 different benefit plans to active and retired employees. Under…
In the case known as National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the centerpiece of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 – the so-called “individual mandate,” which requires individuals to purchase a health insurance policy providing a minimum level of coverage or to pay a…
The collective bargaining agreement between the Town of Orchard Park, New York and the Orchard Park Police Benevolent Association calls for the Town to provide some retiree health care benefits. When the Town announced it intended to change retiree health care benefits, the Association filed a grievance on behalf of affected retired members protesting the…
For more than 20 years and over the span of approximately 60 collective bargaining agreements, the City of Duluth entered into language calling for the provision of retiree health care coverage to its police officers, firefighters, and other employees. Two contract clauses cover the issue of retiree health care. The first clause, which nominally covered…
The collective bargaining agreement between Local 732 of the International Association of Fire Fighters and the City of Woonsocket, Rhode Island requires the City to provide retiree medical insurance. When the City canceled the health insurance for seven retirees on the grounds that they had health insurance provided through other sources, Local 732 filed a…
The collective bargaining agreements between the City of Gainesville, Florida and the labor unions representing police, fire, and other employees do not discuss health insurance benefits for retirees. Until 1995, the City paid 100% of retirees’ health insurance premiums for individual coverage including all premium increases occurring after retirement. In 1995, the City reduced the…
When Mark Petersen retired from the Raritan, New Jersey Police Department, he was provided health insurance, without cost, pursuant to the terms of the contract then in effect between the Township and the Police Benevolent Association Local 337. Several years after he retired, Petersen was notified that the Township discontinued all municipal employee participation in…
The 2007 collective bargaining agreement between the City of Detroit, Michigan and the Detroit Police Officers Association was settled through binding arbitration. An arbitration panel adopted the City’s last best offer with respect to health care benefits, which became Article 21 of the contract. Article 21 includes provisions for cost sharing by the employees and…
When a collective bargaining agreement expires without a new contract being reached, the employer is required to maintain the wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment – usually referred to as mandatory subjects of bargaining – that existed while negotiating a subsequent agreement. Under almost every collective bargaining law, health insurance benefits are mandatory subjects…
William Giblin was employed by Johnson City, New York as a firefighter. When he retired, he received family coverage health insurance benefits for himself and his then-wife pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement in effect between the City and Giblin’s firefighters’ union. The relevant provision of the contract provided that “all present retirees of the…
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law on March 23, 2010 and amended on March 30, 2010 by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively the “Act”), significantly extended the period of time that children may remain covered under their parents’ health care plans. The Act requires…
There’s a lot of information about the new health care reform acts on the Internet and in the news – much of it vague, some of it incorrect, and most of it overwhelming. The acts are very complex, of course, which is reflected in the reports. While several of the changes will be effective in…
