By Martin McDonough
Clarifying the Retirement Matching Changes
When the COVID pandemic first started, the University immediately imposed a reduction of the retirement contribution to 5% instead of 10% matching on the non-unionized staff. The University said it would be returned when that felt possible. A year later our APA members ratified a new Healthcare and Wage Agreement that included a Letter of Agreement (LOA) for that temporary reduction. The duration was initially agreed to be for 24-months and started when we signed the new LOA in January 2022. As the pandemic released its grip and the financial risk were more known, the University announced that it was returning the non-union staff back to the original retirement matching, after losing it for 18-months. At that time, the APA was in conversation about how the change would impact our members. The APA members ratified that new LOA as part of a second ratification vote, to ensure clarity.
Following further information about its true financial condition, the University started hearing the voices of many affected groups calling for the return of their money. It was clear that funding was no longer needed. The University then announced that it would return 12 months of the 18-months of lost contributions to the non-union staff. The APA was approached with an offer to reduce their 18-months agreement to 6-months. A counteroffer was non-negotiable. The APA signed a modified LOA to accept that new time duration. The APA Letters of Agreement can be found on the APA website under Association Documents.
APA members started seeing the contribution reduction in their January 2022 paychecks. With the later LOA, the reduced matching would last only through June 2022.
Through a one-time lump sum payment, the University is returning 12 months of the 18 months of retirement matching losses to the non-unionized staff. With the non-unionized staff still losing 6 months of the retirement reduction and the APA members paying for only 6 months, the two are similar. There have been many inquiries about the lump sum payments and how they affect APA members. To clarify, APA members are not due a lump sum payment because they had not experienced the reduction for the whole 18 months. The APA members should start to see a return to their 10% retirement contribution matching as soon as their July 2022 paychecks. If this does not occur, please contact the APA office as soon as possible.