No payout for unused sick pay or vacation upon retirement

[stealth8]

I am currently in the Teamster Health Plan and my insurance is paid for by the terms in our contract. When I retire, and because I am only 54 yrs old I will be paying the highest monthly premium to keep my health care ( also teamster plan)Some guys have the option of going on to their wives healthcare plan, thus saving that cost. My wife only works part-time, so that is not an option for me. A fellow driver retired last year at age 60 and his monthly healthcare premium is $460.00 for him and his wife. The closer you are to Medicare age the lower your premium.

 

[oldupsman]

I am currently in the Teamster Health Plan and my insurance is paid for by the terms in our contract. When I retire, and because I am only 54 yrs old I will be paying the highest monthly premium to keep my health care ( also teamster plan)Some guys have the option of going on to their wives healthcare plan, thus saving that cost. My wife only works part-time, so that is not an option for me. A fellow driver retired last year at age 60 and his monthly healthcare premium is $460.00 for him and his wife. The closer you are to Medicare age the lower your premium.

Okay. I was curious because my health care is with UPS. So my situation is entirely different.

 

[stealth8]

The reason I ask is because when I retired my health care plan did not change at all. Exact same insurance.

With the exception of a little higher deductible for perscriptions, it is the exact same insurance plan that I have now.

 

[tardus]

Warning! The UPS health plan for retirees is greatly inferior to the UPS health plan for employees! The UPS health plan for retirees has a $150K annual limit. (Under current law, it is not legal to have an employee plan with an annual limit, but the company found a loophole: retirees are not employees!)

The trick to getting your payout of vacation weeks at retirement is to plan ahead and bid them the previous year, so you get the checks the week before you retire. Say you want to retire on Jan. 31st, in November bid all your vacations and personals starting Feb. 1. In my case, they still screwed it up, because they had some dates wrong, but be sure to get a copy of the vacation week submission.

 

[old brown shoe]

Must be different in different areas. I will receive all my sick leave and vacation pay pro rated for the 2013 vacations. You start earning your next years vacations as soon as you pass your seniority date. I don't have to work past Jan. 1st to be eligible. I have checked with the Union and UPS to be sure I would not miss out on this money. Best part is won't be doing another peak season.

 

[tardus]

"Old brown shoe": Please try to get that in writing! I sincerely don't want you to be disappointed.

 

[oldupsman]

Must be different in different areas. I will receive all my sick leave and vacation pay pro rated for the 2013 vacations. You start earning your next years vacations as soon as you pass your seniority date. I don't have to work past Jan. 1st to be eligible. I have checked with the Union and UPS to be sure I would not miss out on this money. Best part is won't be doing another peak season.

Your right shoe. Different rules for different locals. I did the exact same thing you're doing and didn't have a problem.

 

[oldupsman]

Warning! The UPS health plan for retirees is greatly inferior to the UPS health plan for employees! The UPS health plan for retirees has a $150K annual limit. (Under current law, it is not legal to have an employee plan with an annual limit, but the company found a loophole: retirees are not employees!)

The trick to getting your payout of vacation weeks at retirement is to plan ahead and bid them the previous year, so you get the checks the week before you retire. Say you want to retire on Jan. 31st, in November bid all your vacations and personals starting Feb. 1. In my case, they still screwed it up, because they had some dates wrong, but be sure to get a copy of the vacation week submission.

Well, 150K annual limit isn't too shabby. I wouldn't exactly call that greatly inferior. What is the annual limit for
retirees in the Teamster health and welfare program? Compared to what stealth is paying I think I'm getting
a pretty good deal.

 

[tardus]

OldUPSMAN: I am just encouraging everyone to read the fine print if they have UPS retirement health insurance. Your UPS retiree insurance plan may be entirely different from mine, since there are many for variations per region and whether you were in management, and it may be entirely different from the coverage you had as an employee. I was not in management, and I discovered that my UPS retiree health insurance plan had a $150K limit, which wouldn't go very far in the event of a serious accident, or a serious illness. That is the primary reason that I really need health insurance, in case something serious happened. Having a $150K/annual limit is greatly inferior to what I had in the UPS employee plan that had NO annual limit. You could blow through $150K in a week's time in an intensive care unit, and then what? (If someone asked me to pay $4000 annually to insure a $150K house, I would definitely think that was a shabby deal.) Also the UPS retiree plan eliminated coverage for many expensive treatments, like transplants, etc. that were covered under my UPS employee plan.

 

[oldupsman]

The $150K limit in the UPS retiree plan wouldn't get you very far if you were in a serious accident, or had a serious illness, and that is the primary reason that you really need health insurance. Having a $150K/annual limit is greatly inferior to the UPS employee plan that has NO annual limit. You could blow through $150K in a week's time in an intensive care unit, and then what? (If someone asked you to pay $4000 annually to insure a $150K house, wouldn't you think that was a shabby deal?) Also the UPS retiree plan eliminated coverage for many expensive treatments, like transplants, etc. that were covered under the UPS employee plan.

Could you please give me the numbers for the same coverage under the Teamster health and welfare plan for retirees.

 

[oldupsman]

The $150K limit in the UPS retiree plan wouldn't get you very far if you were in a serious accident, or had a serious illness, and that is the primary reason that you really need health insurance. Having a $150K/annual limit is greatly inferior to the UPS employee plan that has NO annual limit. You could blow through $150K in a week's time in an intensive care unit, and then what? (If someone asked you to pay $4000 annually to insure a $150K house, wouldn't you think that was a shabby deal?) Also the UPS retiree plan eliminated coverage for many expensive treatments, like transplants, etc. that were covered under the UPS employee plan.

And now that this has come up I went to my paperwork to check my coverage. I was just asked if I wanted to change
anything in my health care plan for the year. It's the same coverage I've always had. No mention of any of the changes you have mentioned.
Again, things aren't the same everywhere. Could be your local retiree plan is different than mine. I know I'm paying alot less of a premium
then alot of people.

 

[satellitedriver]

Could you please give me the numbers for the same coverage under the Teamster health and welfare plan for retirees.

Central States Retirement insurance is a basic 20/80 policy.
No dental, no vision and limited prescription coverage.
Cost at age 59 is $800, to cover myself and my wife.
!.5 million life time coverage.
$200,000. max payout in one any year.
I had colon cancer surgery in 2010 and spent 7 days in the hospital, with 2 months recovery.
That 200K was spent.
If I had been retired that would have meant we would be out of insurance for the year and responsible for 20% of the bills..
Central State's is more expensive than what can be found on the open market.

 

[tardus]

OldUPSMan: Thank you for checking the fine print of your coverage. My only concern is that some people will just assume that the coverage of their retirement health plan is the same as the health plan they had before they retired. (I would hate for someone to find out that there was an annual limit on the retirement health plan only after a major accident.) I jettisoned my UPS plan in favor of a cheaper plan with a high deductible with no annual limit in coverage. At least I know that I would be covered in the event of a major accident or illness. But I wish someone had warned me that the UPS retirement health plan was so inferior to the employee plan. One reason I stuck around for 35 years was to be eligible for the retirement health care, and it turned out to be a bad deal.

 

[oldupsman]

Central States Retirement insurance is a basic 20/80 policy.
No dental, no vision and limited prescription coverage.
Cost at age 59 is $800, to cover myself and my wife.
!.5 million life time coverage.
$200,000. max payout in one any year.I had colon cancer surgery in 2010 and spent 7 days in the hospital, with 2 months recovery.
That 200K was spent.
If I had been retired that would have meant we would be out of insurance for the year and responsible for 20% of the bills..
Central State's is more expensive than what can be found on the open market.

Thanks for the info satellite. I've been living in a health care dream world since I retired. I'm just lucky
I'm in the local I'm in with the coverage I have and the premium I pay. I know I'm gonna get a real
wake-up call in 5 years when I hit 65. Or maybe even the next contract. Both my coverage and premium
are part of the contract. I can't complain. I've milked it for 5 years already. Even if there is an increase in
the premium I'll still have been way ahead in the game.

 

[Freddy Cota Sr.]

NO bad idea. plan your date then schedule vacation and sick days to end the day before retirement. other wise you may not get paid everything due to you mainly sick days. Just retired this October.

 

[old brown shoe]

I went on vacation in Nov. retired when vacations ran out. Last week I received a check with all my sick leave and vacations built up retroactive for 2013. Nice little Christmas check to me.

 

[Catatonic]

Thanks for the info satellite. I've been living in a health care dream world since I retired. I'm just lucky
I'm in the local I'm in with the coverage I have and the premium I pay. I know I'm gonna get a real
wake-up call in 5 years when I hit 65. Or maybe even the next contract. Both my coverage and premium
are part of the contract. I can't complain. I've milked it for 5 years already. Even if there is an increase in
the premium I'll still have been way ahead in the game.

How is this looking with the TA?

 

[oldngray]

If you are retired but covered by UPS plan in my local its basically the same as the active employees but you do have to pay a monthly premium ( $50 a month for 1 person now but increasing to $247 on August 1), but with lifetime limit of $500,000 ( but you can recover $1000 per year towards that maximum). It will certainly get worse with the new contract but how much worse is a question nobody can answer. I am in Central States but not covered by the CS plan (for now).

 

[Xexys]

I am actually thinking of working up until my 30th year and then taking all of my vacation/sick/personal time in a lump sum.

This is what I did. I waited until my seniority date, then took all vacation and made sure I didn't leave any sick days. I actually used my personal day for my last official day.

If Streetglider is right, they've taken this away. It was nice walking away with 7 separate checks plus my last week's wages.

 

[Areyoukiddinme]

this is how i worked it, in February i picked vacation 7 weeks one after the other starting June 1 thru July 27(got all checks no problem) now i am headed down to the pension office to turn in papers to the NWA.
And since i am technically on vaca til the end of July i will be getting those new sick pay days.