Benefits Collaboration. The District will continue a dialogue with the Union in an effort to control costs and optimize the value of the employee benefits programs and to facilitate the approval of meet and confer items related to those programs.
Benefits Collaboration. Except as otherwise specified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement or in this Appendix, the medical, dental, vision, LTD (except for the LTD premium calculation, which will remain the same), life insurance, and flexible spending account benefits and other health and welfare benefits such as, for example, Adoption Assistance, costs, employee contributions and cost-sharing percentage (except as limited below), premiums, deductibles, co-payments, and all other aspects of the health care and welfare plans for West Hershey employees will be the same as those in effect at any given time under the Hershey Company Benefits Program and will be at the same cost and the same options as determined and set by the Company and offered to all Company salaried and hourly U.S. participants in the health care and welfare plans. Notwithstanding this, before implementing any benefit plan changes, the Company will consult with the Union and consider the Union’s suggestions and recommendations regarding such benefit plan changes. The parties agree, effective upon contract ratification, to hold benefit update meetings on an annual basis (no later than August and prior to the roll out of plans to employees and open enrollment for the following year) with the Union’s Business Manager/Business Agent to review active employee health and welfare plan design, current status of such plans, claims data review, costing methodology, and regulatory trends and best practices. The parties may mutually agree at any time to adjust the frequency of these meetings. Prior to receiving confidential information, the Business Manager/Agent must sign a confidentiality agreement in a form acceptable to Hershey. The LTD benefit design presently being offered regarding physical and mental health diagnoses to the Unionized employees shall remain unchanged unless modified and agreed to by the parties. For newly hired employees, effective January 1, 2011, the Union agrees to discontinue the Supplemental Retirement Contribution (SRC) and Retiree Life Insurance Program, as the Company has already done so for all salaried employees. The parties acknowledge that calculating health care premiums is a two-step process done on an annual basis. In step one, the Company determines the cost of the plan by considering a number of factors consistent with generally accepted health care underwriting and actuarial standards, including, but not limited to, claims data, cost trending factors, and health care inflation. In...
