Policy Meeting Minutes

Present: Ernie, Leslie, Caesar, Laura, Lanni, Sue H, Sandy, Dave P, Scott, Alison Z, Sue
B, Edward C

Agenda:

	Introductions
	Benefits – Sun Life
	Interim Authority
	Staff Meal Expense
	“Fair” Pharmacare
	O/N payrates
	MSP/RRSP
	Client vacation
	Keyworker Payrates
	Client Away – Notice to staff
	Rates of Pay

1. SunLife Benefits Renewal: Our annual renewal report arrived last week.  Our anniversary is July 1, 2004 and the report outlines benefits usage over the past two years and what rates we will pay beginning in July 2004.

	Long Term Disability – Rate will increase 34% this year.  Employees pay this premium to ensure that benefits paid will be non-taxable.  LTD pays a benefit of 66% of gross pay after being off work for 15 weeks. Two year own occupation clause – For the first two years of disability, you must be unable to perform the duties of your own occupation.  Thereafter to be considered disabled must be unable to perform duties of any occupation.  If rehabilitation and training for another occupation is an option, then Sun Life provides that.
	Health Benefits (Drugs, Vision and Paraprofessionals) – Rate will increase 4% this year.  (Last year's increase was 18% after we introduced the 10% deductible on medications)
	Dental Benefits – Rate will increase 23% this year.
	Group life Insurance - rates increase July 1 due to increase in average age of employees.

Suggestions to deal with rate increases:

	LTD – Increase in rates will add between $6 and $12 per month to the LTD deduction on employee’s 15th of the Month paycheque.
	Other Societies (Unionized) have changed their LTD coverage: Extended waiting times – 5 months or 6 months 1 year own occupation clause.
	Policy committee thought that we should leave plan as it is – if it is too diluted, then it isn’t worth paying for.

Summary of Increases to benefits that Spectrum covers:

-         Life $60/month increase for Spectrum

-         Health $400/month increase for Spectrum

-         Dental $1200/month increase for Spectrum

-         Total of $1,660 per month in additional premiums

Ernie estimates that Sun Life may come back with offer of 10% decrease from $1,660 to $1,500/mo = $18,000/year.

Options to reduce overall payroll costs by $1,500/month

-         Reduce RRSP contributions to pay for other benefits

-         Employee co-pay health/dental plan premiums

-         Change Dental plan – eligibility for cleaning from 5 to 9 months.

-         Prescriptions: Co-insurance increase to 20%.

-         Service Innovations – reduce cost of services – direct savings to cover benefits increases

-         80% sick day pay

The decision on which options to explore was deferred to the next meeting in September as we need to find out what the final renewal rates are and get quotes on the impact of the above changes to better inform our decisions.

Background: Unionized agencies have faced two additional cuts over the past year.  In September, 2003 their sick pay funding was reduced from 18 days of funding per year per employee to 10 days of funded sick time per year per employee, even though the collective agreement still provided employees with 18 days per year.  In March, 2004 a new collective agreement was bargained that provided significant savings in a number of areas, so government reduced unionized agency contracts by 4.15%, effective April 1, 2004.  Most agencies have not found that level of savings yet and are having to cut services.  In March, 2004 – Spectrum measured the savings they made in changes to services compared with the cuts the government made – (0.75% in January 2004 and 1% in April 2004).  To make the budget balance, we had to find savings in employee benefits.  We proposed changes to MSP and RRSP Employer contributions, and then adopted a revised proposal from the Policy committee.  See the minutes of the last policy meeting at: http://www.spectrumsociety.org/policy/policyminutes033104.htm

At unionized agencies, the starting wage dropped from $16.83 down to $13.85/hour.

Interim Authority Update:

	In March, April and May, the Government appointed 7 members to the Board of Directors - Two from the previous board and five new people.  The new Board Chair is Lois Hollstedt.
	In May, the Government released the Boyd Report - an Updated Readiness Report that recommended the transition take up to 18 months to ensure complex transition issues are dealt with safely.
	Transition Updates were published semi-monthly but will now be published monthly.

Staff Meal Expenses:

	How much can staff spend when accompanying individuals to restaurants?
	This is a program specific decision, based primarily on the individual's needs and their budget:

How much can individual afford

What s daily routine/weekly routine?

Create guidelines eg: $8.00 dinner, $5.00 lunch, $3.00 breakfast

“Fair” Pharmacare:

      All employees must submit form to Sun Life.  Financial after registering for Fair Pharmacare: www.gov.bc.ca

      Sun Life’s address can be found on the claim forms.

O/N Pay Rates:

$8.10 /hour - starting rate

$8.40  after 1,500 hours

$8.70 after 3,000 hours

$9.00 above 4,500 hours

For most staff, sick hours are accrued at CSW rate, so if they take a night shift off because they are sick, we do a rough calculation of equivalent CSW hours to withdraw from their sick pool: 

8 O/N = 5 CSW Hrs

9 O/N = 5.5 CSW Hrs

10 O/N = 6 CSW Hrs

11 O/N = 6.5 CSW Hrs

An Example: If an employee has 140 hours of sick pay, they must keep a balance of 80 hours. 60 hrs remaining can be divided in ½ and x hourly rate and deposited to RRSP.

Sick hours accumulated total will appear on June 30 paystub.

MSP/RRSP

Is RRSP more important than basic medical?

Some staff don’t use RRSP and feel strongly affected by the $54.00 monthly deduction.

Reviewing MSP deduction/RRSP contributions in 6 months.

Create Plan A – Full MSP paid

- No RRSP Employer contributions

Plan B – Employer RRSP contributions

- Employee pays $54 of total MSP

Premium Assistance:

	Single qualify if net income under $24,000.00
	Family qualify if net family income under limit for the family ($24,000 +$6,000 per child + $6,000 for each person with a disability in the family)
	Employees will pay no MSP if they qualify for any premium assistance.

 Spectrum will send out a Bulletin re:  Premium Assistance

Keyworker Pay Rate and Responsibilities:

§         $.25 more an hour

§         Some keyworkers have specific time set aside in their schedule to get some of the tasks assigned done.  This is done based on the individual program schedules and what is assigned versus the time available during line shifts to get things done.  If key workers have too many tasks to complete, they should talk with their manager about either re-delegating some of the tasks or getting an extra hour or two to complete the tasks.

What are Managers’ roles?

How much delegation is okay, how much is too much?

Individuals away - staff without work: Manager can give two weeks notice of cancelled shift or can offer choices to staff if there is less than two weeks notice:

	Take an LOA or Vacation time
	Or work at tasks in the house given by Manager
	Or work at another house.

Client vacation - how do staff get paid:

1 staff person on vacation - 12 hours for the 9am to 9pm period and 4 CSW hours for the O/N = 16 hours

2 staff on vacation - 9 hours for the 9am to 9pm period and 2 CSW hours for the O/N - 11 hours - Rationale is that when there are two staff, it is possible to give each other breaks and there is shared responsibility - less pressure than when a staff is away on their own.

Next Meeting: September 22, 2004 - 4pm to 7pm