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Employee Benefits

Section 3.C.1 – Assignment of Benefits

For the purpose of assigning benefits, employees at Vance-Granville Community College are classified as either full-time or part-time.

Full-time employees who work at least 30 hours per week for at least nine continuous months per year, are eligible to receive retirement and health insurance benefits and earn sick and annual leave. Employees, who work less than 40 hours per week, but more than 30, receive leave on a prorated basis (i.e. an employee who works a 32 hour week would earn 80% of their sick and annual leave). “Full-time employees,” for the purpose of eligibility in the State Retirement and Health Benefit Plans, is defined as an individual employed for a minimum of nine months per year and who works a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Part-time employees work less than 30 hours per week and/or have contracts of less than nine months and earn neither sick nor annual leave. Part-time employees who work at least nine months are eligible to enroll in the State Health Plan on a fully contributory basis in accordance with the guidelines established by the Plan.

Part-time hourly employees are paid for the hours worked and receive no benefits.

Section 3.C.2 – Affordable Care Act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act, ensures that employees have access to affordable health insurance. The law requires employers that have 50 or more full-time employees to offer medicalinsurance to full-time employees and coverage for their children up to age 26.

Any part-time or adjunct faculty, staff or student employee working a continuous thirty service hours, as measured by the standard measurement period, will be offered the opportunity to enroll in the State of North Carolina High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) in compliance with the Affordable Care Act.

Employee Status Change: If an employee’s status changes during the plan year, the employee may lose eligibility or become eligible for coverage depending on the new status. The employee will be notified of change in eligibility status as well as effective date of the change.

Rehired Retirees: Retirees of agencies providing insurance under the State of North Carolina retirement plan, who are rehired for employment at VGCC (or other agencies under the State Health Plan) are eligible for the HDHP and are ineligible for retiree health insurance coverage based on the retiree working continuous thirty service hours. The College must notify the State Health Plan when a retiree is eligible for HDHP coverage.

While eligible retirees are not required to enroll in the HDHP, the retiree is no longer eligible for the State Health Plan retiree group coverage under the Retirement System. Upon notice from the College of the retiree’s HDHP eligibility, based on the retiree working a continuous thirty service hours, the State Health Plan will terminate the retiree from the State Health Plan retiree group coverage under the Retirement System and will issue the re-hired retiree a letter confirming the termination.

Any rehired retiree who enrolled in the HDHP will be offered COBRA if the individual is no longer eligible for the HDHP. In addition, loss of eligibility is a qualifying life event under the State Health Plan enrollment rules, and retirees will have 30 days to re-enroll in their State Health Plan coverage under the Retirement System. If they fail to re-enroll within the 30 days, they will not be eligible for the plan until the next enrollment period.

Notification of Eligibility: Employees with a VGCC email will be notified via email. All others will be notified via standard mail.

Employment Category/Appointment Type Eligibility Trigger Eligibility Point
A Full Time Budgeted (Permanent) Curriculum Faculty Hire Time of Hire
B Part Time Budgeted (Permanent) Curriculum Faculty Hire Eligible at hire but must pay full cost of coverage
C Full Time Interim (Temporary) Faculty Employed more than 3 months Within 3 months of hire
D Adjunct (Part-Time Temporary ) Curriculum Faculty Averages more than 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month during Measurement period Subsequent Stability Period assuming continued employment
E Full Time Budgeted (Permanent) Instructor Hire Time of Hire
F Part Time Permanent Instructor Hire Eligible at hire but must pay full cost of coverage
G Full Time Temporary Instructor Employed more than 3 months Within 3 months of hire
H Part Time Temporary Instructor Averages more than 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month during Measurement period Subsequent Stability Period assuming continued employment
I Full Time Budgeted (Permanent) Staff Hire Time of Hire
J Part Time Permanent Staff Hire Eligible at hire but must pay full cost of coverage
K Full Time Interim (Temporary) Staff Employed more than 3 months Within 3 months of hire
L Part Time Temporary Staff Averages more than 30 hours per week Subsequent Stability Period assuming continued employment
M Temporary Agency Staff May be eligible for coverage through the temporary agency
N Part Time Budgeted (Permanent) Curriculum Faculty No coverage eligibility

Opting Out: Any employee may choose to not accept coverage in the health plan. Employees should annually complete a form that acknowledges that they were offered coverage and chose not to accept the coverage. Opting out of coverage should not be used as a reason to allow an employee to work additional hours. Once an employee opts out for the plan year, they cannot enroll again until the next annual enrollment.

Definitions used in this policy are as follows:

  • High Deductible Health Plan – Features a higher deductible than other traditional plans. Members must meet the deductible first, and then the coinsurance applies to the applicable service.
  • Service hours – Each hour for which an employee is credited for the performance of services and, if applicable, hours for which an employee is entitled to payment during which no duties are performed due to paid leave, such as vacation, holiday, disability, jury duty, military leave or leave of absence. For faculty/instructor positions, service hours include not only classroom instruction time, but also time spent on advising students, class preparation work, course development, office hours, committee work, and other duties as assigned or required by the College. The ratio multiplier used to calculate service hours for part-time curriculum faculty is 1.25. The ratio multiplier used to calculate service hours for part-time non-curriculum faculty is 0.75. Actual hours worked are used to calculate service hours for part-time staff the applicable service
  • Standard/Initial Measurement period – The period of time for which an employee’s hours are recorded and measured to determine average hours worked. This period can be 3 months but no more than 12 months from the date of hire or from the first of the month following the date of hire.
  • Curriculum Faculty/Instructor – An employee whose primary work is instruction in credit-bearing courses.
  • Non-Curriculum Faculty/Instructor – An employee whose primary work is instruction in non-credit-bearing courses.
  • Staff – An employee whose primary work does not include performance of classroom instruction.

(approved July 16, 2018)

Procedures

  • All inquiries or concerns related to the Affordable Care Act should be brought to the attention of the particular division administration and the Human Resources Office.
  • The total allowable service hours for part-time (or adjunct) employees at the College is 29.5. Supervisors must stay apprised of service hours of employees. See Faculty Workload Policy 4.K for academic procedures regarding teaching schedules.
  • The Human Resources Office, coordinating with the Business Office and Information Technology Office, will perform a review of eligibility during measurement periods.
  • Generally, measurement periods will follow the semester calendar.
  • Part-time employees are required to notify and obtain approval in advance from each supervisor when they work in multiple areas at the College.
  • If a part-time employee is working for two areas of the College, both division VPs must sign off on the employee’s contract prior to employment in each area. This documentation may occur via email and must be initiated by one of the employee’s supervisors, not the employee. This documentation must be attached to the signed contract and submitted to Human Resources for review in determining eligibility for the ACA HDHP.
  • The procedure for calculating total service time for the two positions will be based on the positions held by the employee. The standard calculation method for both positions will be used to get total hours worked for both positions, and then the average of the two totals will be used to calculate total service of time.
  • If the employee has more than one position, and it causes the employee to become eligible for benefits, the budgeted cost of the benefits will be shared equally between the departments.