Taxpayers foot bill for special health care fund after union dodges reform

April 23--Taxpayers and transit riders are on the hook for tens of millions a year after the Boston Carmen's Union dodged a 2009 reform meant to rein in MBTA health insurance costs by convincing lawmakers and an arbitrator to set up a special fund to give T workers extra benefits and perks.

-- Read: An Act for a Reliable, Sustainable Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

The MBTA created a Health and Welfare Fund after arbitrator Sarah Kerr Garraty ruled in 2013 that the transit agency must maintain a trust to pay for dental and eye care, life insurance and Medicare Part B reimbursement for retirees -- benefits not covered under state workers' health insurance system.

The arbitration decision noted that Medicare reimbursements are a rare perk for state employees and not included in other public health and welfare trusts in Massachusetts.

Health and welfare funds created for other public employees, including the Boston Teachers Union, have been controversial in the past because they often provide generous benefits above and beyond what the average government employee receives.

Lawmakers passed 2009 transportation legislation that moved MBTA workers under the state's Group Insurance Commission in a reform that was billed as a $30 million annual savings for taxpayers.

But shifting T workers from the agency's more expensive health insurance plans to the GIC has been derailed by delays -- first by the Carmen's Union unsuccessful court challenge.

Then a 2010 law allowed roughly 3,600 Carmen's Union members to avoid moving to the GIC until this fiscal year while the labor group sought arbitration, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

But even before the arbitration ruling, lawmakers passed a 2011 law setting up the framework for a Health and Welfare Trust Plan for MBTA employees.

In its report last month, the taxpayers foundation summed up how the union skirted the 2009 reform.

"After failing to reach agreements through collective bargaining and mediation, the Boston Carmen's Union Local 589... requested binding arbitration in 2008 and again in 2013 and won substantially more generous contracts than settlements the T negotiated with several other unions," the report states.

Transportation Committee Senate Chairman Thomas McGee defended lawmakers' work on T health care reform.

"We addressed some issues that weren't necessarily popular but those issues were addressed," the Lynn Democrat said. "And there are savings because those decisions were made. There were a lot of challenges to move that forward."

___

(c)2015 the Boston Herald

Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.