Section 27.  Long Term Disability Insurance

The County shall continue to provide its present long term income protection plan for permanent employees at no cost to said employees; provided, however, that in order to be eligible for such plan, employees must have been employed by the County for three (3) or more years.

Effective with disabilities commencing on or after January 1, 1988, the one hundred and twenty (120) day disability period required to qualify for long term income protection does not require continuous disability but shall be cumulative for any single medically verified illness or injury within a period of six (6) full months from the date of the disability’s onset.  The onset date shall be defined as the first workday the employee was unable to work.

The maximum benefit of the Long Term Disability Plan shall be Two Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($2400) monthly.  The County also agrees to cover under the LTD Plan, part-time employees who work a minimum of twenty (20) hours per week.

The Long Term Disability Plan restricts benefits for psychiatric disabilities that result from stress, depression or other life events to two years.  However, a disability resulting from certain chronic psychotic disorders or a disorder with demonstrable organic brain deficits can qualify for benefits payable up to the age of sixty-five (65).