Arbitrator: West Haven teachers must be refunded partial amount for medical benefit overpayment – New Haven Register

WEST HAVEN — A miscalculation led hundreds of West Haven teachers to overpay on their health insurance premiums, according to both a forensic audit and arbitrators, while some others did not pay enough.

Despite that, hundreds of thousands of dollars may not be refunded from the five-year period when the formula was misapplied.

In a May 2021 letter from West Haven Federation of Teachers President Kristen Malloy-Scanlon to members, she said auditing firm BMI found a deviation from the language in the union contract for 2012 to 2017 that led 325 teachers to overpay on health insurance by a cumulative $363,807 — and 246 members to underpay on their medical premiums by a cumulative $79,993.

In a Feb. 16, 2022, letter to WHFT members obtained by the Register, Malloy-Scanlon reported that the arbitration case was closed but “wasn’t what the WHFT had hoped for.” Although the arbitrator ruled in the union’s favor, the union was only awarded for the period of May and June 2017, the period for which the union filed its original grievance.

“Therefore, the arbitrator did not award from 2012-2017. We are now currently in the process of determining what people should expect to receive,” she wrote in the February letter.

In a statement, Malloy-Scanlon called the situation “unfortunate.”

“It is extremely unfortunate that district officials missed the opportunity in 2017 to make educators whole when we first demanded accountability for the insurance discrepancy. Our union leadership strongly disagrees with the arbitrator’s decision to award our members two months instead of the full value of their financial loss,” she said.

WHFT’s field representative with AFT Connecticut who represented the union before the arbitrator did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Superintendent of Schools Neil Cavallaro said the issue stemmed from the Board of Education, which is self-insured, opting for a new benefits plan.

“Years ago we changed medical plans and the employees didn’t like the plan, but it was the most cost-effective plan the board could afford,” he said. “I didn’t want them to feel that we were taking anything away from them — we just couldn’t afford it — so what we allowed was for them to buy up to the plan: to pay a monthly cost, and whatever that cost was it would be no cost to the Board of Education.”

Cavallaro said there “was certainly no intentional error on our part” and the formula was devised before the current district business manager assumed the role in 2014.

“There’s no question that a mistake was made, but we couldn’t go back nine years and resolve that for a period of four to five years,” he said. “The decision is what the decision is.”

Malloy-Scanlon said in her February letter to WHFT members that she believes “in actuality, both parties had lost.”

“Our members lost the financial compensation that they so deserve, and Central Office lost because my members will now know that they could have been made whole. Furthermore, this does not help with the mistrust many of our members have with our district,” she wrote.

Malloy-Scanlon said the union would be “looking into any recourse with the decision, even though we do not think it can be appealed.”

Cavallaro said he was unsure whether the surplus paid by union teachers landed with the Board of Education or the insurer.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com