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More CATA transparency: Fringe benefits for CATA employees

April 14, 2019

In a March 14 story, I provided 2018 payroll data for all CATA employees. What follows is a summary of fringe benefits enjoyed by CATA employees. It is my interpretation based on these documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests:

Pensions. All full-time CATA employees get defined benefit pensions, but the plans differ depending on whether the employee is in an administrative position or a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU).

Administrative. Pensions are calculated as 70% of the average monthly pay for your last 5 full calendar years. The percentage is 60% if you were hired on or after March 1, 2007. By comparison, City of Lansing police and firefighters' pensions are 80% of average pay for the last 24 months.

 

The pension amount is reduced if you work less than 25 years or you retire before your normal retirement age. Normal retirement age is either 59 or 62 and the vesting requirement is either 3 or 5, depending mostly on hire date. I tried to figure out just how this works from the plan document and could not do so.

 

Administrative employees contribute 7% of pay to the retirement system.

 

ATU. Pensions are calculated as years of service times $68. For example, if you have 20 years of service, your monthly benefit is 20x68, or $1,360. By comparison, a state employee with 20 years service and a 1.5% multiplier would need a $54,400 final average compensation (FAC) to get that pension amount.

A service year is at least 1000 hours, which is an average of 19.23 hours a week.

"Vesting" is the number of years a member must work to qualify for a pension, and it varies with date hired:

There is also an age requirement. Members hired on or after December 1, 2009 can retire with a full pension at age 60. Members hired before December 1, 2009 can retire at age 59. Members can retire early with a reduced benefit.

 

What is unusual about this retirement plan is that earnings have no effect on the pension amount. That is good to know when we see how much overtime pay some employees are getting.

 

ATU members contribute $83.50 a week to the retirement system.

Health insurance.

Administrative. Part-time hourly employees do not get health insurance. For full-time hourly and salaried employees, coverage begins on the first of the month following the first full calendar month of full-time employment. The plan includes medical, hospital, prescription, dental and vision benefits.

 

Employees contribute to their health coverage through payroll deduction. The amount of that deduction is not specified in the material. Employees who opt out are paid $500 a year.

 

ATU. Both active and retired ATU members get heath insurance. The weekly contribution is $79 for active members, $28 for retirees. Claims incurred in an automobile accident are limited to $1,000. The remainder is the responsibility of the auto insurance carrier.

 

To be eligible for health insurance, retirees must have worked for a minimum number of years that varies with hire date:

Active members also get vision and dental coverage for a $3 weekly contribution.

Vacation.

Administrative. Vacation time is based on years of service:

 

	1 year	1 week
	2 years	2 weeks
	5 years	3 weeks
	10 years	4 weeks
	15 years	5 weeks
	20 years	6 weeks

 

Unused vacation time may not be carried over from year-to-year. Up to 2 weeks pay for unused vacation time will be paid after the end of the calendar year to employees who have taken at least 3 weeks vacation and still have time remaining.

 

ATU. Vacation time is based on years of service:

The weekly vacation pay amount is the average weekly amount (1/52) of straight time wages, overtime wages and vacation pay combined for the year ending on the anniversary date on which the member qualifies for vacation.

Service incentive pay. A reward for good attendance:

Administrative. Eight hours pay for each month worked with no more than 4 days absence. Paid following the first week of December.

 

ATU. Called a "bonus" in the contract, it is a monthly payment based on the number of work shifts missed in that month:

In addition, any employee who has perfect attendance for the contract year gets an additional $500.

Life insurance.

Administrative. Two times annual salary to a maximum of $150,000 for employees, $15,000 for spouse and $7,500 for dependent children. On top of that, for accidental death of the employee, two times annual salary to a maximum of $150,000.

 

ATU. For active employees, $45,000 with an additional $45,000 for accidental death and dismemberment.  For retirees, $15,000.

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A couple of other matters related to transparency at CATA. Number 1: This is from the Lansing State Journal's February 4 story on overtime at CATA:

On CATA's website, there is a Contact CATA page that allows one to send a message. On March 13, I sent this message:

I got no response.

Number 2: The CATA website also has a FOIA requests page (below). Note that it does not provide an email address. The only options are mail or fax, which is rather inconvenient. Until that gets corrected, I suggest using this email address: bfunkhouser@cata.org.

Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com, or call or text me at 517-505-2696. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.

 

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