{"id":28357,"date":"2014-09-02T10:03:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T15:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=28357"},"modified":"2014-09-02T10:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T15:03:31","slug":"hr-connection-benefits-educational-advancement-wellness-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2014\/09\/02\/hr-connection-benefits-educational-advancement-wellness-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"HR Connection: Benefits, educational advancement, wellness, and more"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><em>The following is provided by the Human Resources Department:<\/em><\/h4>\n<p><strong>New Premium Rates Effective <\/strong><strong>9\/1\/14<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Employees enrolled in the ERS Group Benefits Program are encouraged to visit\u00c2 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/hr\/benefits\/insuranceprograms.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/hr\/benefits\/insuranceprograms.php<\/a> to view the 2015-rate sheets.<\/p>\n<p>Medical premiums increased 7 &#8211; 11 percent and the Dental DHMO plan increased 9.25 percent.\u00c2  The new premiums will be reflected on employees&#8217; September paycheck(s).\u00c2  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the HR Benefits Staff at (512) 223.7230 or (512) 223.7537.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Information about the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Employee Contribution Rate Change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Effective\u00c2 September 1, 2014, the TRS employee contribution rate will increase from 6.4 percent to 6.7 percent. \u00c2 The employer&#8217;s contribution will remain unchanged at 6.8 percent. \u00c2 No action by the employee is required for this change to occur. \u00c2 Employees will see the increased contribution rate on their first paycheck in September.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Service\u00c2 Retirement\u00c2 Eligibility Change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Based on Senate Bill 1458, passed by the 2013 Texas Legislature, effective\u00c2 September 1, 2014, any person who<\/p>\n<p>-\u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2  does not have at least five years of service credit in TRS on August 31, 2014,<\/p>\n<p>-\u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2 \u00c2  becomes a member of TRS on or after\u00c2 09\/01\/2014<\/p>\n<p>will be affected by the\u00c2 changes made to the normal-age service\u00c2 retirement\u00c2 eligibility.<\/p>\n<p>Eligibility\u00c2 for a normal-age service retirement annuity, unreduced for early age, a\u00c2 member must meet one of the following criteria:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>age 65 with at least five years of service credit, or<\/li>\n<li>age 62 with at least five years of service credit and meet the Rule of 80 (age and years of service credit total at least 80).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Members who have at least five years of service credit in TRS on\u00c2 August 31, 2014\u00c2 and who do not terminate\u00c2 membership\u00c2 by withdrawing their contributions; will be able to retire under the retirement eligibility requirements in place immediately before the effective date of\u00c2 the bill.<\/p>\n<p>For more information<strong>,<\/strong><strong> <\/strong>visit the TRS website at\u00c2 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trs.state.tx.us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.trs.state.tx.us<\/a> and search\u00c2 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trs.state.tx.us\/global.jsp?&amp;page_id=\/about\/announcement_five_year_requirement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">8-31-2014\u00c2 Five-Year Requirement<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Retiring from TRS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When an employee retires from the TRS through any TRS\u00c2 employer, they\u00c2 must retire from<strong> all\u00c2 TRS-covered agencies in which they are employed<\/strong>. \u00c2 This is true even if you are not currently contributing to TRS through ACC.<\/p>\n<p>The TRS retiree must observe a break in service of\u00c2 at least one full calendar month after retirement in order for their retirement to be effective.<\/p>\n<p>For additional information on returning to work as a Retiree, please read the\u00c2 <strong>Employment After Retirement<\/strong> brochure on the TRS website at: \u00c2 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trs.state.tx.us\/benefits\/documents\/employment_after_retirement.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.trs.state.tx.us\/benefits\/documents\/employment_after_retirement.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Please contact Susan M. Corbett, HR Benefits Manager at <a href=\"tel:512-223-7617\" target=\"_blank\">(512) 223.7617<\/a> should you have any further questions.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Educational Advancement program<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In response to employee feedback, HR is adopting a lottery system for tuition reimbursement requests.<\/p>\n<p>Tuition reimbursement requests for fall semester classes will be accepted October 6-10. Names will be entered into a drawing that will be live streamed and recorded. Funding calculations will be done at that time.<\/p>\n<p>Find details and requirements on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/hr\/profdev\/ea\/reimburse_form.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tuition Reimbursement Forms <\/a>webpage.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Access Wellness <\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget to check out the new wellness programs on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/hr\/wellness\/classes\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Access Wellness<\/a> webpage or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www3.austincc.edu\/it\/workshops\/www\/eventenroll.php?Source=Calendar&amp;EventID=3217\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Workshop &amp; Event Registration<\/a> database. New programs about healthy eating and exercise are starting soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The following is provided by the Human Resources Department: New Premium Rates Effective 9\/1\/14 Employees enrolled in the ERS Group Benefits Program are encouraged to visit\u00c2 http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/hr\/benefits\/insuranceprograms.php to view the 2015-rate sheets. Medical premiums increased &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2014\/09\/02\/hr-connection-benefits-educational-advancement-wellness-and-more\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facstaff-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}