Caut Council delegates meeting in Ottawa April 24 voted unanimously to create a national benefits trust to provide cost effective and comprehensive benefit coverage for academic staff association members and their families.
“CAUT member associations can now negotiate with their employers for a full range of benefits to be provided through the CAUT Benefits Trust,” said Neil Tudiver, CAUT’s assistant executive director in charge of the project.
Tudiver says the trust will provide comprehensive benefits coverage, including extended health, dental care, long-term disability, life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment.
“There will be many advantages to member associations that bring their benefits into the trust,” Tudiver said. “By negotiating with insurance carriers on a national basis, we will be able to obtain the best possible rates for all members. Costs will also be reduced because of the economies of scale in a large national trust, through lower fees for administration, risk charges, investment, legal and consulting services.”
He says because the trust is controlled by CAUT-appointed trustees, member associations are assured of timely financial information and can monitor the real costs of benefits.
“Each association will be able to design its own plan, based on the preferences of its members and the availability of the trust to provide a suitable carrier,” said Tudiver.
Detailed information about the trust is available from CAUT. If members decide they want to join the trust, the association negotiates with the employer for a transition to the trust. Usually the negotiation will be part of the bargaining for a new collective agreement.
CAUT will provide advice for negotiating with the employer to provide members’ benefits through the trust. CAUT will also provide assistance with negotiating agreements with the employer that cover the employer’s and the association’s responsibilities during the transition to the trust, and for the association’s continuing participation in the trust.
The trust is administered by a board of trustees appointed by CAUT Council. The five trustees
are Charles Draimin, Rolland Gaudet, Nancy Langton, Elin E. Maher and and M. Anne Stalker.
Trustees meet quarterly and are responsible for governing all aspects of the trust, and for preparing regular reports to the CAUT Executive, CAUT Council, and the membership of the trust.
Each association that is a participant in the trust has a representative on the trust’s advisory council, which meets twice annually during CAUT’s Council meetings to receive the trust’s reports and to keep trustees informed on member interests and concerns.
For more information about the CAUT Benefits Trust, contact
Neil Tudiver (tudiver@caut.ca).
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Meet the Trustees
Charles Draimin
Professor of accounting at Concordia University, president of the Concordia faculty association & a member of Concordia’s employee benefits committee.
Rolland Gaudet
Professor of mathematics at Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface, past president of the association of professors at Saint-Boniface & a member of the Society of Actuaries & its education & examination committee.
Nancy Langton
Professor at the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business & vice-president & former treasurer of the UBC faculty association.
Elin E. Maher
Professor of accounting at the University of New Brunswick, Association of UNB Teachers employee group representative on UNB’s fringe benefits review committee & a member of the New Brunswick Institute of Chartered Accountants appeal tribunal.
M. Anne Stalker
Professor and former associate dean of law at the University of Calgary & UC faculty association president & chief negotiator.