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Labor and Personnel Hingham, teachers agree on GIC withdrawal plan
Selectmen and the teachers’ union in Hingham have reached an agreement on how to withdraw retired teachers from the state’s Group Insurance Commission.
Retired Hingham teachers and school administrators had received health care coverage through the GIC since the early 1970s. For the past two decades, however, Hingham has been responsible for 90 percent of health care premiums for retired teachers and administrators, compared to 50 percent for other retired town employees.
Under the agreement with the teachers’ union, reached in August, current retirees will see no change in the proportion of their premiums for which they are responsible. Teachers who already have accumulated 30 years of service also will continue to pay only 10 percent of their premiums once they retire. Other current teachers and administrators will pay an amount between 10 percent and 50 percent, based on their years of service as of now. All new hires will be responsible for 50 percent of their premiums when they retire.
“It was an option for the Board of Selectmen to simply set the reimbursement rate at 50 percent for current teacher retirees immediately,” Selectmen Chair Laura Burns said in a prepared statement. “But the board felt strongly that current retirees could not absorb such a drastic change, and it would be wrong to require it when they had already made their plans and retired based on different expectations.”
Town officials project that, over the next 30 years, the change will save an average of $322,000 a year, putting Hingham in better position to account for future retirement-related costs, as recommended by the Government Accounting Standards Board in 2007.
Labor and Personnel Hingham, teachers agree on GIC withdrawal plan
Hingham, teachers agree on GIC withdrawal plan
Selectmen and the teachers’ union in Hingham have reached an agreement on how to withdraw retired teachers from the state’s Group Insurance Commission.
Retired Hingham teachers and school administrators had received health care coverage through the GIC since the early 1970s. For the past two decades, however, Hingham has been responsible for 90 percent of health care premiums for retired teachers and administrators, compared to 50 percent for other retired town employees.
Under the agreement with the teachers’ union, reached in August, current retirees will see no change in the proportion of their premiums for which they are responsible. Teachers who already have accumulated 30 years of service also will continue to pay only 10 percent of their premiums once they retire. Other current teachers and administrators will pay an amount between 10 percent and 50 percent, based on their years of service as of now. All new hires will be responsible for 50 percent of their premiums when they retire.
“It was an option for the Board of Selectmen to simply set the reimbursement rate at 50 percent for current teacher retirees immediately,” Selectmen Chair Laura Burns said in a prepared statement. “But the board felt strongly that current retirees could not absorb such a drastic change, and it would be wrong to require it when they had already made their plans and retired based on different expectations.”
Town officials project that, over the next 30 years, the change will save an average of $322,000 a year, putting Hingham in better position to account for future retirement-related costs, as recommended by the Government Accounting Standards Board in 2007.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
