No one believes that they might one day need to be on disability.  The reality is that none of us knows.  A car accident, a fall, a sudden serious medical diagnosis – any number of things can happen in a moment that can suddenly change your life forever.  Teachers believe, as I did, that they are protected by the Salary Indemnity Plan and will be supported by our union, the BCTF.  Unfortunately, in my case, it was the BCTF, my union, that came against me, suing me for fraud, denying me due process.  I absolutely deny all the charges against me.  It is long and complicated but this is a case of which every teacher needs to be aware.

Although the following letter is longer than it probably should be, those who previewed it for me admit that it would be difficult to make it shorter.  I plan to deal with more specific issues in more depth in future posts.  For example, BCTF’s use of surveillance of it’s own members.  What it is like to be placed under surveillance?  Will you necessarily know that you have been placed under surveillance?  What do they actually capture on video?  Do they really follow the privacy regulations?  Does anyone actually look at these videos or simply read the written description provided by the investigators who are working in the best interests of the insurance companies.

The following letter was sent to all local BCTF union presidents the first week of December 2012. It is about the manner in which BCTF handled my long term disability claim as a result of breast cancer. I have reason to believe that this letter was not forwarded to the members as I requested. The version below has been slightly edited from the original for clarity.

December 3, 2012

An open letter to my fellow members of BCTF:

The purpose of this letter is to inform members about how BCTF is spending their money and to try and prevent this series of events from happening to another member.

Members need to determine if this is how they want the union to handle matters, if this is how they want their money to be spent, and if this is how they wish to be treated in the event they find it necessary to go on disability.  This case could/should have been settled at a Medical Review.

I am currently retired and remain a member of the BCTF at this time.  I am a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed in 1998.  My cancer treatments – double mastectomy, aggressive chemotherapy, radiation, hormone treatment, reconstructive surgeries, etc. – caused me to be on and off long term disability for several years and I continue to suffer from disabilities stemming from my cancer treatments.  This letter concerns events which began in April of 2007 with a letter from BCTF’s lawyers accusing me of several counts of fraud with reference to my disability claim.  I categorically deny these allegations. The events that followed resulted in a trial in B.C. Supreme Court on April 2009. The Judgment was not handed down until July 5, 2010.  The judge dismissed the claims on both sides.  I initially decided to launch an appeal of the Court’s decision and there were good reasons for me to do so.  In the end, finances and my own health and well-being precluded us from pursuing further action which could have taken another 2 or 3 years.

Subsequent to this judgment BCTF sought a hearing for costs which was not held until January 6, 2011.  The Judgment for that hearing was not handed down until August 17, 2011.  The judge “concluded that there was misconduct in the litigation (by BCTF)  – whether calculated or careless – that should be penalized in costs.  While I (the judge) am not persuaded the misconduct entitles the defendant to payment of her costs, I am satisfied this is an appropriate case to deny costs to the plaintiff. (BCTF).”  The decision was that each party should bear their own costs.  The final Order after Trial was not completed until December 20, 2011.

It was my, perhaps misguided, desire to have exhausted the “proper” channels by submitting a formal Section 12 complaint to the Labour Relations Board and a formal complaint against the judge’s decision that has caused such a delay in my telling this story.

This extremely lengthy procedure has taken an enormous toll on my physical, mental, emotional and financial well being and I am ready to move on from this but I feel that it is important, even a responsibility, that I inform my fellow members of the BCTF of my experience with the goal of preventing this series of events from happening to any other union members.  I continue to be disabled by many of the symptoms which were discussed in this case – chronic fatigue as a result of breast cancer treatment, “chemo brain” or cognitive impairment, extreme anxiety, etc.  Stress is the worst possible thing for all of my diagnoses but I have been unable to avoid stress due to the actions of the BCTF.

My main concerns are as follows:

1.  BCTF is the insurer of the Salary Indemnity Plan and holds a vested interest in the monetary success of the plan. Therefore, BCTF also has a vested interest in reducing the

number of teachers on disability.  This is a clear conflict of interest and has implications which are not fully realized by most of the members.

Most BCTF members believe that Great-West Life is the insurer of their Salary Indemnity Plan, BCTF does state in their Rules and Regulations for the Salary Indemnity Plan that they hire Great-West Life to administrate the Long Term portion of the plan.  This explanation obfuscates the fact that BCTF is actually the administrator and final arbiter of the plan.  I have not spoken to one teacher who realized this. When a disagreement arises (especially regarding eligibility), a BCTF member has no representation from the union as it is the union they are dealing with.  BCTF stopped the North Vancouver local from helping me.  Other unions have the insurance company as the insurer and the union supports its members in disability claims.

2.  Denied Due Process:  I was denied my rights to due process as stated in the Salary Indemnity Plan Regulations.  It was upon my application for a Medical Review that I was denied one based on their allegation that I was guilty of fraud.  No one from BCTF attempted to communicate with me in any way before the letter from their lawyers.  The trial further revealed that there is no evidence that my case was taken to the Salary Indemnity Plan Committee.  In fact, no evidence was presented in court that anyone other than the Long Term Plan Administrator had any input into the decision to pursue legal action against me.  The then-President does not recall being consulted or giving direction in this matter.

3.  Confidential informants:  BCTF’S use of confidential informants is very disconcerting.  Information was taken by telephone from a confidential informant in January 2006. All such calls are fully investigated including the use of surveillance. I would not come to know this until over 2 years later during an Examination for Discovery.  I was given no opportunity to respond to any of the allegations. BCTF never revealed the full extent of what the informant said about me, refusing to do so in court, and fought hard, going to great expense and effort, to avoid revealing the identity of the informant.  I was denied my legal right to face my accuser.

4.  Placing of members under surveillance:  I was placed under surveillance on 3 separate occasions for a total of 20 days.  I would never have known about the first surveillance of 11 days and the third surveillance of 3 days if this case had not gone to court.  It was determined in discovery that it is policy for BCTF to place its members under surveillance.  If you have ever had an assessment of a disability claim you may have been placed under surveillance and you would never know about it.

5.  Breach of Privacy:  BCTF breached my privacy by attaching pages of personal confidential medical information to their Statement of Claim suing me for fraud.  I believe this was done to draw media attention which it did resulting in the publishing of newspaper articles which had a devastating effect on me.  The judge ruled that this was misconduct on the part of BCTF.

Members should also be aware that on disability there is no doctor-patient confidentiality.

6.  Surveillance and Litigation Costs:  The budgets which are published for the BCTF members do not in any way detail the costs involved in this or other ligitations.

As members of the BCTF we pay union dues to both BCTF and our local union as well as a disability fund payment.  This money was used to conduct their case against me.  My local union attempted to assist me in the initial process but were shut down by the BCTF.

Members need to pursue (Freedom of Information Act) what the actual costs of surveillance and litigation are and what is the return on costs. The statement was made that most of these investigations come to nothing.  Several hundred thousand dollars were spent to attempt to recover $40,000 dollars from me – this amount includes 8 months of disability paid after BCTF reinstated my claim with full knowledge of my health and activities including my husband and I taking the personal risk of mortgaging our home to purchase a franchise so that we would not be dependent on my disability payments.  (That business was sold at a considerable loss.)

Despite the fact that the judge dismisses both the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s primary claims, BCTF still elected to pursue me for costs, an action which was extremely detrimental to me, causing me and the BCTF further expense as well as inflicting much psychological duress which manifested itself in physical duress.  As noted previously, they were unsuccessful in this claim.

7.  Why?  Members must ask why BCTF pursued this vendetta against me.  BCTF could have simply denied my disability claim and walked away.  They could have consulted with me but made no attempt whatsoever before referring this case to their lawyers.  They refused a reasonable settlement offer from my lawyers approved by a different judge during a Judicial Case Settlement Conference (held prior to going to trial) for an amount which was only 10 percent of the amount approved by the judge and would have been far less than they might have had to pay if I had continued on disability until age 65 and was far less than the amount I believe they spent on litigation.  They chose rather to offer me an amount which would not have covered my legal costs to that date, required me to sign away most of my rights as a member of the BCTF, and included a confidentiality clause.  This offer showed no real will to settle the case without proceeding to trial and could be interpreted as being inflammatory.

All of these events have had a devastating effect on my life physically, psychologically, and financially. We were forced to sell our house and move away from our family home.  These effects cannot be undone but I feel that members need to know and be aware of these actions of the BCTF so that necessary changes can be implemented to protect BCTF members.  Simply ensuring that due process was followed might have prevented this whole process.

I am writing this letter because BCTF is a union which is self governed by the members and it is only the members who can have any influence over “the overall nature and quality of union representation” (Section 12 Guide, Labour Relations Board website).   According to the Labour Relations Board to whom I submitted a formal Section 12 Complaint (BCLRB No. B181/2012) regarding BCTF’s duty of fair representation, they are unable to act in my case as BCTF is a self-governed union and they do not interfere in the internal workings of a union and because BCTF’s actions do not pertain to union representation of me to my employer.   For these reasons I am submitting my concerns for the consideration of the membership.

Judith Thorne

I can be contacted at:

bcteachersdisability@gmail.com