School City of Hammond employees may soon get an incentive to take part in a wellness program, whether teachers want it or not.
The plan approved by the school board Tuesday would give school employees up to $800 a year if they take part in a biometric wellness screening and certify that they're tobacco- and nicotine-free. The incentive doubles for family insurance plan participants.
Still, the program drew opposition from Hammond Teachers' Federation member Rina Horgan because the incentives apparently weren't proposed until contract negotiations were already complete. "Changing contracts outside of our negotiation window is both illegal and unethical," Horgan told board members. "Your employees deserve better because they do matter, or so we've been told."
The idea of a wellness program is included in the teacher contract, but the financial incentive wasn't added until the school district saw the proposed health insurance premium increases just after the contract was ratified, according to Chief Financial Officer Eric Kurtz. He said it's a way to mitigate the increases set to take effect in January, while also investing in employees' health.
"With the wellness incentives in place, for an employee on family, the increase is about a thousand dollars, depending on which of the two plans they're on," Kurtz said. "Without that, the increase is closer to $3,000."
School Attorney Monica Conrad said the added incentive is allowed under state law. "It is not illegal because it's a supplemental payment," Conrad explained. "Supplemental payments do not need to be negotiated."
But school board member Carlotta Blake-King disagreed. She felt the incentive was a fringe benefit — and one that teachers don't seem to want right now.
"It's a negotiable item," Blake-King said. "You can't put a negotiable item in front of me as a board member, and you have negotiated outside your window."
Indiana law prohibits the school corporation from reopening negotiations with the teachers' federation until next September. Board member Cindy Murphy didn't think it was fair to make the rest of the district's employees wait that long.
"You should say 'yes' for the custodians," Murphy told the rest of the board. "They don't make as much money as people think they do. . . . They need this relief until we can figure out what we're going to do with insurance for the following year."
In the end, the wellness incentive program was approved by a vote of three-to-one, with Blake-King opposing.
It will now have to be reviewed by the Indiana Distressed Unit Appeal Board, since School City of Hammond is under a corrective action plan. The program could theoretically cost as much as $878,478, if every eligible employee took part.