This is a notification that the last day of the WorkShare program will be Saturday, July 25 due to the expiration of the $600 per week CARES Act unemployment benefit after that date. This is in accordance with the agreement letter of understanding with the bargaining units.  At this point, there will not be any furloughs after July 25 and we will be canceling the WorkShare plan. You should not have to take any action and your hours will resume to their normal levels.
Federal legislation is a constantly evolving situation and, if the benefit does happen to be extended, the City will reevaluate our position at that time.

Coronavirus Member Flyer

TO:                             Public Works Bargaining Unit

DATE:                        July 1, 2020      

POSITION:               Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator

DIVISION:                Wastewater Treatment Plant

POSTING PERIOD

Monday, July 6, 2020 through Friday, July 10, 2020 at 4:00 p.m.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

The duties and responsibilities as well as the minimum qualifications are contained in the attached job description.  A Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) Wastewater “D” certificate within a two-year period is required.  This position may include second and third shifts, and / or weekends. Testing will be required.

RATE OF PAY

Entry $19.30/hr, 6 months $20.44/hr, 1 yr $21.57/hr, 2 yrs $22.67/hr, 3 yrs $23.89/hr.

These rates do not include certificate pay.

TO APPLY

Employees interested in this position must come to the Human Resources Department to sign for the posting before 4:00 p.m., Friday, July 10, 2020.  Please take this posting down after 4:00 p.m. Friday, July 10, 2020.  MUST BE SIGNED IN INK.

 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Everyone is required to electronically sign, acknowledging you have received and reviewed the attached benefits notices provided by the City of Marquette, and that you are aware they are available on the City Employee Website. Please sign the form by July 17th. 
https://www.marquettemi.gov/benefitsnotice/

BCBSM will not be issuing any replacement cards because our plan with BCBSM did not change – the funded plans with 44North did.  Everyone should've received a new 44North card. BCBSM will auto-issue cards to employees making changes only.  

If you did not receive a new 44North card, please contact Michelle in Human Resources at X8584 or mschroeder@marquettemi.gov.

Employees with American Fidelity and Texas Life policies and/or unreimbursed medical or dependent day care plans paid for by payroll deduction, the new amounts for the new plan year will be reflected on your 7/10/20 pay stubs. We have made a minor modification in how these are deducted. Because all of the enrollment forms and amounts are based on 26 payrolls per year, we will now make the deduction on all payrolls, including the third payroll of the month the two times a year when that occurs, as we have 26 biweekly payrolls in a year. Historically we have only deducted these on the first and second payrolls each month, so the deductions were based on 1/24th of the annualized amounts rather than 1/26th, which has caused some confusion. The end result is that the payroll deductions should now match the amounts on your enrollment forms. What this means is that if you have a policy that had no changes in premium or an unreimbursed medical or dependent daycare agreement for the same total amount as last year, your deduction on each pay period will be slightly less than last plan year (July-June). All of your deduction amounts can be viewed on your check stubs on the employee portal once the 7/10 payroll as been completed. Should you have any questions regarding this change, please contact Tim Raich in payroll at 906-225-8586 or traich@marquettemi.gov.

The City of Marquette’s Health Insurance restricts In-Network services to those delivered within the State of Michigan.  This is because of the U.P. Blue Rider that is on all of our plans and helps to keep employee premium cost-sharing low.  To have your employer coverage run as In-Network, you have to ensure two things; firstly that the provider (ie. physician) is within the State of Michigan and secondly, that they are participating In-Network with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.  There are some providers in Marquette that provide services locally but send things like lab results to an out-of-state facility to be read/generated.  In particular, we've had this happen multiple times with sleep study services.  This is not going to be covered as an In-Network service without prior approval.  It is your responsibility to have these conversations with your provider in advance of seeking services.  There is a referral program with U.P. Blue.  Your Provider, in advance of a sleep study or requiring labs, needs to complete the referral paperwork and obtain approval from Blues for the services to be provided out-of-state.  Failure to follow this process will result in out-of-network cost-sharing that will be the employee’s responsibility.

All employees participating in the WorkShare program have/will have received two letters notifying them of their participation in the WorkShare program.

The first letter was likely received last week and shows a WorkShare start date of 6/7 and a plan number of 600006. This first program was immediately terminated because the MiWam system set a start date of 6/7 in error when the participant information was originally uploaded to the state.

 A corrected new plan was then set up with a start date of 6/14. The corrected WorkShare program is plan number 623078. To further confuse matters, apparently letters were sent out to everyone showing the new WorkShare plan participation along with a notice of termination of the original plan 600006.

As a reminder, everyone in the WorkShare program was immediately issued a Bank of America debit card, even if you signed up for direct deposit. The debit cards should not be destroyed or thrown away in case any funds were to be loaded on to them by the state, as replacement could potentially be both difficult and time consuming for employees.

As an additional reminder, you are not required to certify your unemployment or do anything else involving your claim. The City certifies your participation each week.

All employees are still required to sign up or sign off by June 19th. If you haven’t already, you must do so on the website.
The PIN required is your six-digit date of birth in the MMDDYY format.