The COVID-19 Crisis Relief Plan has been updated since the introduction below, which was written on March 27.
The Federal and Provincial health authorities asked all Canadians to stay two meters away from each other. Our community is instructed to stay home, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This has disrupted operations for many businesses. As a result, services normally available under your Extended Health and Dental plan have also been limited. That’s why we have taken steps to help ease the stress. Effective immediately we are implementing the COVID-19 Crisis Relief Plan.
The Crisis Relief Plan is a temporary measure to help you maintain benefits for you, your employees, and their families through premium/contribution relief and plan administration relief.
Premium/Contribution Relief
Rate Reductions
You will notice rate reductions to the Extended Health and Dental benefits on your May statement. These rate reductions will be done retroactively to April 1st, so you will also notice retroactive adjustments. Reductions will be as follows:
- Extended Health Care rates: 40% reduction
- Dental rates: 75% reduction
We understand that during this crisis, business priorities will change. You are working to manage your costs, sustain your operations, and keep your employees working. That’s why we are offering you the option to defer employee benefits coverage without terminating your benefit plan. Please contact us to temporarily suspend your benefit plan. Your plan can be reinstated in the future to provide your employees access to their benefits plan once again.
Plan Administration Relief
Required Hours
While employees may see a reduction in their hours for the next several weeks, an employee would be considered eligible for benefits if they have fulfilled the average required hours over a six-month period of time (or in some cases, longer). As such, their coverage remains intact.
Reduced Hours for Hourly Staff
Canada Life (formerly known as Great West Life) confirmed that if employee hours are reduced, coverage will remain in place at the same level as it was prior to the reduction of employee hours. If you wish to reduce the level of coverage, please let us know.
Extended Health and Dental benefits are not impacted.
Layoffs
Normally we allow employers to extend benefits (except for disability) for a period of one, two, or three months during a layoff. During this time employers will continue to have the ability to extend benefits.
The BCCA Employee Benefit Trust was established over 50 years ago with a mission to look after the health and wellbeing of employees in the construction industry. We have never wavered from our purpose and remain committed to that purpose in these unprecedented times. We know there’s a lot of uncertainty about the future, but we hope the COVID-19 Crisis Relief Plan can provide some comfort for you and your team.
We will continue to monitor the changing socio-economic climate and will keep you informed as things change. If you have any questions regarding these options, please contact your client services team at hr@bccabenefits.ca. We have also prepared a COVID-19 FAQ to help answer any questions regarding claims, layoffs, and your employees.
