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The Fringe Benefits Committee has spent this past year working in two subcommittees: leave donation programs/short term disability, and retirement plans B and C. Each subcommittee has met independently with their members, gathered data, discussed findings, and asked for further suggestions from the fringe benefits committee as a whole. We are not ready yet to put any proposals on the table, and plan to continue our research and discussion. The Associate Vice President for the Department of Human Resources, Earl McLane, has recently been attending our committee meetings and has offered a helpful perspective.
From the Subcommittee on Leave Donation Programs:
During this past year we were on a fact-finding mission to determine whether other universities and businesses include a sick leave donation program in their benefits package. We found several programs of varying degrees. We compiled a list of these that was distributed to FB committee members at one of our meetings. We then met with Mr. McLane to discuss some of these options.
According to Mr. McLane there would be a problem with transferring time from one employee to another because of the various grants (NIH, etc.) that are used throughout the University. We then discussed the possibility of the University instituting a short-term disability benefit for Category 2 and 3 employees (Cat. 0 and 1 employees have an automatic three months sick leave, which is essentially the same as having short-term disability). Mr. McLane offered to research the possibility of instituting a short-term disability benefit. At this point we believe that a short-term disability benefit would be the best option for CWRU employees—more equitable across the board and easier to administrate. We have asked Mr. McLane if he would be willing to discuss the feasibility of this option at the upcoming SAC Fringe Benefits meeting and whether he was able to find out any information about potential providers and types of plans as was discussed at his first meeting with us. We await his reply.
From the Subcommittee on Staff Retirement Plans B and C:
The retirement subcommittee spent time this year discussing and analyzing Plan B. We also investigated retirement plans at other research institutions similar to CWRU and found that a majority had equal plans for staff and faculty. In addition, the actuary responsible for designing Plan B from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP gave a presentation on Plans B and C. We plan to continue our research and to investigate whether Plan B meets the retirement needs of the staff community and whether it satisfies the goals set for it by the University.
Lynne E. Ford
SAC Fringe Benefits Committee Co-Chair
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