Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Ethiopian alters medical, insurance schemes

By Kirubel Tadesse, April 26, 2011
The flag carrier Ethiopian Airlines has placed new “cost effective and efficient” medical aid and accident insurance schemes for employees. The news is received with mixed reactions as employees mull over the changes.

Among notable changes, disability and death compensation pay for employees and families triples to half a million birr while employees now share 15 percent of costs of out-patient medical services.
Major changes

According to a four-page circular Ethiopian distributed to senior staff members, the new arrangement known as medical aid scheme (MAS) for administrative and technical employees will cover up to 45,000 birr, up from 15,000 birr in the previous plan.

The MAS is extended for medical costs for employees who receive care and treatments ranging from fixing teeth to surgeries in health facilities the airline has an agreement with.

Foreign assigned employees are allowed to spend up to 75,000 birr in the MAS while pilots and cabin crews that collectively make up 18 percent of the airlines’ taskforce rank first with 100,000 birr at their disposal.

Trainees too are aided by the scheme that took effect on March 1st ; Ethiopian nationals, who are trained freely with the commitment to serve the airlines have up to 7,500 birr in medical costs covered while foreign nationals who pay for their training get a 10,000 birr support.

The hefty terms are provided by Group Personal Accident (GPA) that contains insurance policies to provide the airlines’ employees with 24 hour protection against accidental injury and deaths resulting from work environment incidents.

GPA terms are only extended for non-crew employees as pilots and flight attendants have such conditions covered by external insurers.

While medical costs will also be assisted, a compensation fee for disability and death incidents under the new GPA terms have soared up for non-crew employees.

All employees, as per the conditions they suffered, will be compensated with pay between 50,000 and 500,000 birr; the maximum available resource under the previous program was only 150,000 birr.

The new plan Ethiopian entered into force last month was based on a feasibility study conducted. The airlines didn’t hide that it wants employees to share soaring costs of medical expenses while it awards them with greater pay for extreme cases such death that will be paid for to the surviving family.
Employees’ Reactions

“I think it should be welcomed that we can leave behind a fair amount of money for our family if accidents happen. Even for our own self, it is very comforting to have assistance in case of accidents leading to disability,” said one senior technician.

The technician remembers last year’s tragic incident of a fellow technician who was killed hit by an aircraft propeller.

“Though these things are rare, they do happen; it is a double tragedy if families are left behind without adequate compensation; so this why I think it is good to raise compensation pay.”

Female employees are welcoming the new packages’ because they extend coverage for expenses incurred for treatments due to pregnancy and child-birth.

Not everyone is happy with the new plan; some are complaining about a new policy that has employees paying a 15 percent fee for out-patient services such as the ones made to see a doctor for examinations and subsequent costs for laboratory tests.

Costs of frames for eye glasses are another cost the airline wants employees to share; the airline is willing to pay 85 percent if the frames don’t exceed 1,000 birr. After that the employee is saddled with the cost.

“I understand that the choice of frames is somehow a luxury but the main cost the airline had assisted us with has been the outpatient medical services; 15 percent seems small in terms of percentage but when you see the actual figure it could be a lot.

This basically means we may have to start going to government hospitals as you can imagine 15 percent of what private hospitals asks to see doctors and for laboratory tests is too much to cover,” said one employee that asked not to be named.

The airlines also want employees to contribute 10 percent of dental treatment costs, while there is an annual cap of 8,000 birr for such procedures to be covered.

Despite complaints from employees, Ethiopian senior management and the Labor Union have endorsed “the favorable recommendations of the feasibility study” to result in the new plan which should be revised within two years.

The airline says the new schemes covered by Ethiopian Insurance Corporation were improved taking into consideration “existing soaring cost of medical services and other related medial materials.”
Source: CapitalEthiopia

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