Disability Plan To Cover 6000

Harvard will extend its disability payments plan to its 6000 hourly employees, effective April 1.

At present only Corporation appointees and twenty-four workers are eligible for the payments--60 per cent of earnings, including social security, at the time of disability, up to the employee's normal retirement date, when he begins to receive a pension.

Other benefits, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, also continue after disability.

Employees earning less than $12,000 a year will pay no premiums under the plan, which is supported by fees ranging up to $12 a year for those earning over $25,000.

The disability plan's present surplus will pay the initial costs of extending it, Joan Bruce, manager of benefits administration in the personnel office, said yesterday.

She said that though hourly employees are statistically likelier to become totally disabled than Corporation appointees, the University expects that the premiums will continue to pay for the plan.

"It's going to cost us nothing--at least, we hope," Bruce said.