There are three central issues that we have brought to the bargaining table this round related to our extended health benefits plan: (1) that any changes to our benefits plan must be approved by the Faculty Association; (2) an across-the-board increase to the specified coverage limits in our SunLife benefits plan; and (3) benefits for all! It was the Roman poet Juvenal who first coined the phrase “mens sana in corpore sano”— “a healthy mind in a healthy body”—and as the basis for a flourishing university it is just as true today as it was 2 centuries ago.
No changes without approval: Those of you who read the posts in each bargaining round will undoubtedly recognize the ‘no changes without approval’ proposal from past years. The reason we keep putting this on the table is because it is a really important issue with a straightforward solution, an issue with implications for our members’ overall well-being and compensation. As things stand, UBC has felt free to change the elements of our benefits coverage on any scale that they see fit, altering specific details within our benefits plan. Some recent changes have been to the good — increased coverage for psychological services, introduction of fertility treatment benefits and coverage for gender-affirming care — but we have also seen UBC and SunLife taking unilateral steps to save themselves money on prescription drugs that are vital to our health. Given that benefits are part of our overall compensation, a reduction in benefits coverage is also tantamount to a unilateral reduction in compensation. Hence our simple proposal to require union approval of changes to our coverage — these kinds of clauses are commonplace in collective agreements for faculty associations across Canada, from small colleges to major research institutions.
Spending caps: The caps for most of our benefits have not changed in two decades or more, while at the same time the costs of these services have increased significantly. This means that for many benefits our coverage has functionally been decreasing, and in some instances it is dramatically lower than coverage at other Canadian universities. For example, our orthodontics coverage is capped at $3,000 per lifetime for members and our dependents. While that was sufficient to cover the cost of braces or the like in the 1990s, today that amount would cover, at most, half of those costs. And by way of comparison, SFU’s orthodontics cap is $5,000, while the University of Calgary’s most recent agreement has increased coverage to $15,000. While UBC has increased our coverage for psychological services to $3,000 per year, for many of us, that falls well short of our costs for these health services. For example, a private autism assessment in BC typically costs $3000-$4500. Those of us whose mental health needs necessitate weekly sessions with a psychologist will have used up our yearly allowance within three to four months. Carleton’s most recent collective agreement, in contrast, has removed the cap for mental health benefits.
When our benefits coverage falls behind rising costs, we increasingly need to pay significant amounts out of pocket for things that are essential to our health and well-being and our ability to do our job well. Even when we don’t require formal workplace accommodations, we may well be managing chronic or episodic health issues or have dependents managing these issues. Given the exorbitant cost of living in the Metro-Vancouver and Kelowna regions, these extra costs represent a real challenge for many of us.
Recognizing that the vast majority of our benefits have not kept pace with costs and that different members make use of benefits coverage in different ways, we are proposing an across-the-board increase for all benefit caps listed in our SunLife coverage handbook, as well as for our Health Spending Account (HSA) amount. We are also proposing that those amounts be automatically increased annually, creating a bulwark against the current situation of decades-long stagnation.
Benefits for all: Currently, our members over age 71 and all of our part-time Sessional colleagues are largely without benefits coverage at UBC. Benefits are an integral part of our compensation, so this disparity in coverage means that some of us are being cheated. We all know what this means for us: knowing that we can cover the cost of either our own or our family’s needs — be it glasses or braces, or osteopaths, speech therapists, psychologists, or physiotherapists — and still pay the rent and buy groceries is fundamental to our sense of security and wellbeing. And increased benefits coverage is to the benefit of the university as much as it is to us. When we have consistent resources to attend to our physical and psychological health as needed, rather than as can be afforded, we can reduce the number of short and long term medical leaves we need to take, increase our workplace functionality, simplify UBC’s HR administration, and provide better and more consistent service to the public. Increasing benefits coverage is a win-win scenario for us and the university. These days there are fewer and fewer justifications for excluding older colleagues from benefits coverage, and it should never be the case that the colleagues who teach the most for UBC get the least protection. We think it’s high time that UBC enact their own commitment to fairness and justice for all.
