After many years of lobbying by the Guild, the CBC and all the unions are moving toward establishing a drug card that all CBC employees can use to pay for their prescription drugs covered under the Supplemental Health Care Plan.

At the December meeting of the Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits (CCSB), the unions agreed to support a plan by the CBC to negotiate an agreement with the insurance company. This is an important step, but not a done deal. We want to emphasize that an agreement still has to be negotiated and the process from converting from our current paper/electronic filing system still has to be worked out.  More information will be released pending a successful negotiation with Great West Life.

Cost-of-living adjustment coming for CBC employees on Long Term Disability

The CCSB has approved a cost-of-living adjustment for about 166 CBC employees on Long Term Disability (LTD) who do not receive the old automatic increase to help cover inflation. The two per cent increase effective Jan. 1, 2015 will apply to employees who went on disability between July 1, 2002 and Dec. 31, 2013. Only those people still on LTD at the end of this year are eligible for the increase.

The CCSB also approved a slightly larger increase (2.1 per cent) for a smaller group of employees who did not receive a cost-of-living increase in 2010. At the time, we did not have any increase for two reasons: the plan’s financial condition was not as good as it is now; and, inflation was very low. This latest adjustment will make sure the employees who are still on LTD at Dec. 31, 2014 catch up.

Our consultants estimate the total cost of implementing both increases will be $765,000, with the money coming from surplus funds in the LTD plan.

Employees who began receiving LTD benefits before July 1, 2002 will continue to receive automatic cost-of-living increases in the new year.

Your representatives at the December CCSB

Michael D’Souza
Annick Forest
Eric Foss
Marc-Philippe Laurin
Michael Robert
Jon Soper
Dan Oldfield