CUNA Mutual Watching Over Staffers, Families During War

MADISON, Wis. -Although only two of CUNA Mutual’s 5,000 employees have been called to duty, the company’s response to the war has been to make “accommodation” a priority. “Recognizing the sacrifice that activated military employees would be making separating themselves from family and friends, and the risks that they could be facing to defend our freedom, our leadership team right after 9/11 decided that we would extend our military leave policy well beyond what is required by law,” said CUNA Mutual spokesperson Sydney Lindner. The Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA) provides for re-employment rights and service credit for benefit plans for leaves up to five years. By law employees called to active military duty receive: * Either the use of available and earned vacation, personal time, floating holidays, and comp time, or pay for the difference between military pay and their CUNA Mutual salary for up to two weeks. * Continued life, medical, dental, vision, and LTD benefits for 15 months. * Re-employment rights for leaves up to five years. * Credited service for the period of the leave upon returning to work. In addition to the basic provisions of USERRA, CUNA Mutual staffers called to active duty will also receive the following: * The difference between their CUNA Mutual Group base pay and military pay for a period of six months. * Any Corporate Success Sharing Plan payment with military pay assumed to be company pay. * Waiving of all war exclusions under the company’s life insurance and long term disability benefit plans. * Suspending required repayment of any 401(k) loan. * Extending Employee Assistance Program benefits to an employee’s family members. * Including the period of military service in calculating surviving spouse benefits under the company’s pension plan, in the event of an employee’s death while on active military duty. CUNA Mutual is also working with those employees whose spouses are called to active military duty by accommodating the employee’s work schedule and other unique needs. On the insurance front CUNA Mutual has been contacting military and other credit unions that may have affected employees or members to quickly identify and help those who are covered by policies such as credit disability and credit life.