TriMet and the union representing thousands of its employees appear close to resolving a benefits dispute union officials decried as a "fiasco" this summer.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, which represents more than 2,500 front-line TriMet workers, accused the transit agency of gumming up a process to verify thousands of spouses and children listed as dependents on the agency's healthcare system. Union officials said the move resulted in hundreds of legal dependents losing healthcare at the end of August.
"Our hope is that TriMet would work with them," spokesman Andrew Riley said Monday of the employees, "rather than have them be unceremoniously dumped [from coverage.]"
The union sent a letter last week to TriMet executives saying many retirees and their dependents were caught unaware this summer by the "arbitrary" dependent verification timeline and people lost coverage because they were out of town or otherwise missed the memo.
"In the last month," union leaders wrote Oct. 10, "our officers and staff have talked to dozens of confused, scared TriMet employees and their families who don't know what to do. A single mother with a daughter who can no longer access the weekly counseling services she needs. A retiree's spouse with early-onset dementia who cannot afford her regular treatments and therapies."
But TriMet disputed the union's assertion that the process was arbitrary or a surprise, citing the fact the agency contracted with the same company in 2012 to verify the validity of dependents listed on healthcare plans. This summer, TriMet extended the timeframe employees had to send in valid forms through mid-August, despite employees having more than a month to submit paperwork initially.
Kimberly Sewell, TriMet's labor relations and human resources executive director, wrote a letter to union leaders Tuesday saying the agency also gave the union notice in May of the verification time period.
According to the letter, more than 4,921 dependents were successfully verified.
An estimated 254 people involuntarily lost healthcare coverage, TriMet wrote.
Sewell said the agency, which just started open enrollment for its 2019 healthcare benefits, would allow those employees removed from coverage to submit paperwork verifying they are legally a dependent on a TriMet employee's or retiree's health care plan by Oct. 29.
If approved, their healthcare coverage would be reinstated Nov. 1.
Riley, the union spokesman, said that was a "step in the right direction," but it doesn't help people who lost coverage for two months.
"It doesn't apply retroactively as far as I've heard," he said in an email, "so it doesn't help families which have received exorbitant bills for the cost of care while they were uninsured."
He said the union was still working on that issue.
-- Andrew Theen
atheen@oregonian.com
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen