HILLSBOROUGH: School contract snags, forcing more negotiation

Mail-order prescription co-payment is hangup, board member says

By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
   A snag prevented the approval of a three-year contract for most of the 1,000 or so Hillsborough school teachers, aides, secretaries, bus drivers and maintenance staff and others.
   The Hillsborough Education Association members were set to vote Friday, but a last-minute “misunderstanding” developed in mid-week, and no vote was taken, said Daynon Blevins, HEA president.
   The Board of Education didn’t have ratification on Monday’s meeting agenda. Instead, the board voted unanimously Monday to rescind designation of the N.J. School Employees Health Benefit Plan, which would have become effective Feb. 1 as the employee benefit. The board extended its present contract with Blue Cross/Blue Shield health and prescription drug plan to June 30.
   Board member Christopher Pulsifer said the board was contractually bound to offer the same, or better, coverage when a change in plan carriers made. The board acted on that belief when it voted in October, but found differently last week.
   The difference is in the co-payment an employee would pay for mail order prescriptions, he said. Under the previous plan, there was none; the proposed copayment would have been10 percent. That could mean an expense of hundreds of dollars to someone who needed to use the provision, he said.
   Even if the HEA agreed, the board couldn’t vote the change in coverage, he said.
   The state-assigned mediator was called to schedule a negotiating session on the point. The mediator also reinstated a “communications blackout” barring statements to the media.
      ”It came to the attention of the HEA that the BOE misinterpreted the written agreement signed by the mediator, and, until the issue is resolved, there will be no ratification vote,” said a statement Monday morning from Mr. Blevins. “The process will require the mediator to return to either enforce the language or, if the board is unable to comply with that agreement, to reopen negotiations.”
   Mr. Blevins said the HEA held building-level meetings since salary guides were distributed, and was holding one last general membership meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
   The HEA declared an impasse in negotiations in May, and the two sides held sessions with a state-appointed mediator in September and October.