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The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4600 and Carleton administration are working together to find a solution to the suspension of the health and dental plan for Carleton teaching and research assistants.
According to previous Charlatan coverage, benefit claims—including dental, vision, physiotherapy, chiropractic and childcare for undergraduate or graduate teaching assistants at Carleton—have currently been suspended due to a lack of funds.
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (FGPA) directed Green Shield Canada, a company managing healthcare benefits at Carleton, to stop paying any benefit claims and suspend any reimbursement for students through the Universal Health Insurance Plan (UHIP), according to an email sent by CUPE 4600 to union members on Feb. 21.
“At this point, the union has not received any communication from the FGPA detailing a specific date on which benefits were frozen, and it is unclear when benefits access will be restored,” the email said. “TA benefits being frozen due to a lack of funds has never occurred before.”
But, Beth Gorham, Carleton public affairs manager, said the “FGPA did not direct the insurance company (Green Shield Canada) to stop paying claims.”
“The money simply ran out,” Gorham said in an email.
The benefits reimbursed for assistant faculty at Carleton are part of a collective agreement reached between the university and CUPE 4600. The agreement was reinstated this past year in September and is to be valid until August, 2019.
A sum of $170,000 was budgeted this year in benefits for teaching and research assistants on top of the surplus carried over from last year, according to this year’s collective agreement.
CUPE 4600 president Wesley Petite told the Charlatan that the union was not informed properly about the exhaustion of allocated funds ahead of time, “making this against the signed collective agreement.”
“We had heard that there was a possible exhaustion of funds in earlier discussions last semester with the employer, and we were very confused about this because of the size of this year’s deposit which is larger than previous years,” Petite said.
He added CUPE 4600 was also not informed about the lack of surplus or emergency relief carried over from last year to this year’s allocated funds in healthcare benefits.
“We were really looking at getting ahead of this and having talks before the fund was exhausted,” he said, “but that level of dialogue just doesn’t seem to exist with Carleton management.”
Petite said conversations with the university since the news broke about the lack of funds have been “better.’
But, he said CUPE 4600 disagrees with a condition put forward by the administration to readjust current benefits provided to union members before a deposit for funds towards continued healthcare coverage for the rest of the term.
“Both parties have realized that there is an issue that needs to be addressed here and so that’s why we thank them on behalf of our membership, but the conditions that they stated are very strange and we don’t see why this is necessary,” Petite added.
“We don’t feel comfortable with this condition because, especially with announcements from the Ford administration about potential cuts and ancillary fees becoming optional, our jointly-funded benefits will no longer be available.”
Going into bargaining, the union hopes to maintain current benefits for members, with the prospect of increasing them instead of the potential decrease in benefits that the university is proposing under their “readjustment” condition, Petite said.
Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, said students are still able to access their insurance coverage through their undergraduate and graduate student associations until an agreement over a solution has been made.
“All members of CUPE 4600 Unit 1 are Carleton students, and they have access to insurance coverage through their student associations. In some cases, students also receive coverage through their parents’ benefit plans or their own personal plans,” Reid said in an email. “We are working diligently on a temporary solution to support our students.”
Teaching and research assistants at Carleton have been asked to pay their previously-covered health and dental care benefits up front in the meantime, and hold onto copies of their receipts for reimbursement at a later date.
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