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ATU representative tells Met Council benefit changes would harm workers
Summary
Andrew Borman of ATU Local 105 used public comment time to warn the Council that proposed changes to sick-time banking and disability-related benefits would push workers onto COBRA and reduce retirement healthcare accruals, urging Council attention during ongoing contract negotiations.
Andrew Borman, assistant business agent with ATU 105, addressed the Metropolitan Council during the public comment period on May 13 to raise concerns about proposed changes to employee benefits.
Borman identified three phases of proposed change that he said would harm workers: (1) ending a longstanding practice that allowed employees undergoing disability management to remain on employer-sponsored health care until they exhausted leave; (2) reducing the allowable sick-time bank from roughly 2,800 hours to about 1,040 hours; and (3) switching to front-loaded sick-time accrual that would make it harder for employees with intermittent long-term illness to rebuild time. He said those changes would force some employees "to use up all of their time and then kick them out onto COBRA." Borman said the union is in open contract negotiations and added that he was not there to negotiate but to flag the effects these proposals would have on Metro Transit workers.
The comment was delivered during the Council's public comment segment and was not followed by immediate staff response or a Council action at that meeting.
