Pension and benefits committee meets

Looking at employee benefits

A UW’s Pension and Benefits Committee meeting was held last week. Our consultant let us know that with the change in Ontario’s government, there might be some consequences to our pension plan. They’ll be monitoring this and will be reporting back. There were three very interesting reports included in the agenda.

The first was a Benefits Utilization Report created by our HR department. This report includes some eye-opening insights and is a “must read”. The second report was titled Enhancements to Healthcare Benefits and it’s reporting on how UW is moving forward with the funds secured by the employee groups in the recent salary negotiations. The third is the Benefit Index Report prepared by our consultants. This report provides a detailed and objective analysis of how UW’s benefits compare. Spoiler Alert… we’re doing quite okay. This benefit indexing exercise is the first phase in UW’s Holistic Benefits Review project that commenced in the fall of 2017. There is a 12 page report prepared by our consultant detailing this review and you can find it in the October 2017 P&B agenda package.

We’ve heard from so many that you would like eyeglass coverage. This will be addressed again but just so you know, three reviews over the past two decades have concluded that it wasn’t in our best interest to include eyeglass coverage. Here’s a link to an explanation from 1999 and the situation hasn’t changed much.

Our UWSA members on this committee are Ted Bleaney and Michael Herz. They always appreciate feedback on Pension or Benefit issues. The next P&B meeting will be September 18^th from 9:30 to 12:00 in NH-3318.