National Bargained Benefit Bargaining 2016 Tentative Agreement Highlights
Four documents (posted at cwa-union.org/mobility-nbbp) make up the new Agreement covering about 43,000 employees of Mobility that AT&T Mobility CWA members will soon be voting on. 1. National Bargained Benefit Plan for Employees of AT&T Mobility Services LLC Benefit Outline Summary This is the main document that is in the same format as previous NBBP Agreements, but has new options.
• The “new hire” date will be moved to January 1, 2017. All employees who were hired or transferred into Mobility after January 1, 2014, who currently are considered “new hires” for benefits purposes; will become “current employees” for benefits.
• Eligibility for the Company subsidy for the individual employee will begin in the month in which the employee has 90 days of service.
• New Option 2 High Deductible coverage will be available.
• Four coverage tiers are now available: o Individual o Individual + Child(ren) o Individual + Spouse o Family
• For members who live in Puerto Rico, new healthcare options will be available: o Negotiated caps on the HMO costs o Medical incentives available with new plans o Lower costs to align with the healthcare market costs in Puerto Rico
• Tobacco Surcharge: A surcharge of $50 per month will be charged to smokers. Smokers will selfidentify in open enrollment, and the surcharge will be waived it the employee enrolls in a smoking cessation program, the cost of which is covered.
• Spousal Surcharge: A surcharge of $100 per month will be charged unless the employee attests that his or her spouse/legally recognized partner does not have access to medical coverage; in which case it will be waived.
2. Letter to Patricia Telesco dated June 7, 2016:
• This letter has details of the Puerto Rico capped HMO contribution rules and is part of the Agreement.
3. Excise Tax Memorandum of Agreement to the National Bargained Benefit Plan for Employees of AT&T Mobility Services, LLC:
• This is language for plan year 2020, when the healthcare tax is scheduled to begin.
4. Conditional Unwind Memorandum of Agreement tothe National Bargained Benefit Plan for Employees of AT&T Mobility Services, LLC:
• This is the document that “unwinds” the National Bargained Benefits Plan Agreement and puts the benefits back together with the Regional Agreements beginning with the next rounds of bargaining.
The CWA set goals of putting the healthcare bargaining back together with the contracts in order to bargain the plans with our wages and have leverage to make plans more affordable, and this Agreement will do this. We also set a goal to “fix” what we discovered was a very high number of Mobility workers who opt out of the insurance. This new Agreement will address this problem in several ways:
Contributions for almost 20,000 employees hired or transferred into the unit during the last agreement will be lowered to match those of more senior members.
A new plan will be offered to all employees with lower contributions in addition to the traditional PPO Plan. 1. Contributions for about 1,000 employees in Puerto Rico will be lowered to reflect the lower price of healthcare in their area.
2. Savings for dependent coverage:
a. Under the current agreement, one contribution rate is charged for an employee covering any number of dependents. A single parent covering one child paid the same rate as employees covering a spouse and multiple children.
b. The new plan charges lower monthly contributions for members only covering dependent children and also for members covering a spouse and no other dependents. Over 5,000 employees will pay less in monthly contributions as a result of the new contribution tiers.