Who is responsible for activating the Waiver of Premium Due to disability? Me? or My employer or the insurance company.

I have 2 Employee group life insurance policies with my job KROGER. One is basic company paid and the other is supplemental. In December of 2023 my employer requested that I take Short Term Disability to address some medical issues that were affecting my performance. I was on PAID Short Term Disability from December 2023 until June 2024. I am still on LOA UNPAID until December 2024. Right around June 2024 or so I was told that either one or both of these Group Life policies had the feature that Waives the Premiums if you become disabled. Every month between December 2023 and June 2024 I was charged the premiums for 1 or both of these policies. When I asked the benefits department why they didn't activate the Premium waiver due to disability... she said that I would have had to ask them to do it before I left for disability. The group life policies are with MetLife and So was the short term disability. This seems fishy to me. They are the ones that sent me on STD. This is MAJOR because once those policies have that Premium Waiver Active on them. The policies basically stay the way they are forever. Even when you leave the company for whatever reason the premiums remain waived as long as you are still disabled. I looked through the plan summary for these policies I don't see anything saying that I have to initiate the activation. This is a concern because the way my recovery from back surgeries is going I may not be able to go back to work. But those policies don't have the waivers active.