Health & Welfare and Pension Funds
of Philadelphia and Vicinity

Vesting and Vesting Service

If you leave Covered Employment and thereby terminate your participation in the Plan before you are eligible for Normal or Early Retirement Benefits as described in Section III, you will have a nonforfeitable right to a benefit (called a "Termination Benefit") if you have completed 10 or more years of Vesting Service. If you have worked in Covered Employment for one or more hours on or after January 1, 1999, you will have a nonforfeitable right to a pension benefit if you have completed 5 or more years of Vesting Service. (For certain individuals whose participation is not based on the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, federal law may require that a shorter vesting period apply).

The following describes how you earn Vesting Service (sometimes called Vesting Credit). The rules for crediting Vesting Service before and after January 1, 1976, the effective date of ERISA, are different. Keep in mind that "vesting" does not apply to a participant who as of January 1, 1976 no longer worked in Covered Employment and/or had not accrued ten years of unbroken service.

1. Service in Covered Employment
2. Military Service and Service with a Covered Employer But Not in Covered Employment.
3. Break in Service

A. Service in Covered Employment

1. Calendar Years Beginning Before January 1, 1976

For each calendar year before 1976, you receive one year's Vesting Credit for each calendar year for which a Covered Employer made or was required to make contributions on your behalf for at least 175 days. For each calendar year in which contributions were made on your behalf for at least 100 but less than 175 days, you will receive one-half year's Vesting Credit. You receive no credit for any calendar year in which contributions were made for less than 100 days.

2. Calendar Years Beginning On and After January 1, 1976

For each calendar year on and after January 1, 1976, you will be credited with a year of Vesting Service if you satisfy both of the following conditions:

(i) You are an employee in a collective bargaining unit covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement by the terms of which an Employer, who is party to this Plan, has agreed to make contributions on your behalf.

(ii) You are credited with at least 750 Hours of Service.

You will receive no credit if you have less than 750 Hours of Service during a calendar year. For purposes of the foregoing, an "Hour of Service" means each regular time hour (a maximum of eight hours per day or 40 hours per week, or as otherwise provided for in the applicable Collective Bargaining Agreement) for which you work or are entitled to be paid for the performance of duties by a Covered Employer and which such Covered Employer is required to make contributions to the Plan on your behalf. Hours of Service include each hour for which back pay (irrespective of mitigation of damages) is awarded or agreed to by the Covered Employer.

B. Military Service and Service with a Covered Employer But Not in Covered Employment.

You may be able to receive Vesting Service during the following periods in which you are not engaged in Covered Employment.

If you have been in employment as described above, you will receive one year's Vesting Credit for each calendar year during which you worked for at least 1000 hours. If you were in such employment but you had between 500 and 999 hours, you will receive one-half year's credit. If you were in military service as described above, you will receive up to a maximum of 5 years' credit at the rate of one year's credit for each calendar year during which you had at least 25 weeks in the armed forces. If you had between 18 weeks' service, but less than 25 in a given year, you will receive one-half year's credit.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you cannot receive more than one year of Vesting Service with respect to any one calendar year.

C. Break in Service

If you are vested when your Covered Employment ends and you later resume Covered Employment, all of the Vesting Service and Benefit Service you earned during your previous employment will be recognized as of the date you begin to participate in the Plan again.

However, if you are not vested when you leave Covered Employment and later resume such employment, the Vesting Service and Benefit Service you had earned during your previous employment will be canceled if you have had a sufficiently lengthy "Break in Service".

You will incur a one-year Break in Service in any calendar year in which you have less than 375 Hours of Service. (Prior to 1976, a Break in Service was defined as a period of 156 or more consecutive calendar weeks during which no Covered Employer made contributions on your behalf to the Trust Fund.)

Hours of Service for purposes of determining a Break in Service are defined in the same manner as described above, with one exception. On and after January 1, 1987, you will receive Hours of Service credit, solely for the purpose of avoiding a Break in Service, for each hour (not in excess of 375 hours) that would normally have been credited to you but for your absence from work

You must, however, furnish the Plan Administrator with such timely information as he may require you to establish that your absence from work is for one of the above-described reasons.

When will a Break in Service cancel your previous Vesting and Benefit Service? The answer depends on when the Break in Service took place and how long it lasted.

1. Prior to January 1, 1976.

Before 1976, you will be considered to have a Break in Service that will cancel your previous Vesting and Benefit Service if there was a period of 156 or more consecutive calendar weeks during which no Covered Employer made contributions on your behalf to the Pension Fund. Prior to the time a Covered Employer has made contributions on your behalf, you will be considered to have a Break in Service if there was a period of 156 or more calendar weeks during which you were not employed in the industry as defined in a Collective Bargaining Agreement.

EXAMPLE: A member worked in Covered Employment from 1960 through 1972 and accumulated 13 years of Benefit Service. He then left Covered Employment for four years and returned in 1976. He continued to work for the next 15 years, until age 65 and filed an application for benefits. He will be entitled to Vesting and Benefit Service Credit only for the time worked between 1976 and his retirement date. His time prior to 1976 is broken because he had not worked in Covered Employment from 1973 through 1976 - more than 156 consecutive weeks.

2. Calendar Years Beginning On or After January 1, 1976.

For 1976 and later years, cancellation of your previous Vesting and Service Credit will occur if the sum of your consecutive one-year Breaks in Service (that is, consecutive calendar years in which you earn less than 375 Hours of Service) equals or exceeds the number of years of Vesting Service you had earned prior to the first one-year Break in Service. Stated briefly, the rule is: if you are out as long as you were in, your Break in Service will cancel your previous Vesting and Benefit Service.

EXAMPLE: A member works more than 750 hours in Covered Employment from 1978 through 1985 and earns eight years of Vesting Service. He ceases to work in the industry at age 30. All Vesting and Benefit Service Credits are canceled as of January 1, 1994 because he had been out of Covered Employment as long as he was in Covered Employment.

3. Calendar Years Commencing On and After January 1, 1987.

For calendar years beginning in 1987, the Break in Service rule changed slightly. Your previous Vesting and Benefit Service will be canceled if the sum of consecutive one-year Breaks in Service equals or exceeds the greater of a) five or b) your number of years of Vesting Service prior to the Break. In other words, beginning in 1987, a Break in Service will not cancel your prior credit unless it lasts for at least five years.

EXAMPLE: A member starts to work in Covered Employment in 1986 and works at least 750 hours in 1986, 1987 and 1988. He then leaves Covered Employment. If he never returns to Covered Employment, his Vesting and Benefit Service will be canceled as of January 1, 1994, when he would have had at least five years of interrupted service. If he does return to Covered Employment for at least 375 hours in any one of those intervening Plan Years, the counting of a new five-year interruption period begins.

Remember, if you have worked in Covered Employment after January 1, 1999 and have earned at least one (1) hour of service, a 5 year vesting schedule applies to you. If it does, once you have earned 5 years of vesting service, then the Break In Service rules will thereafter not apply to you

 Last Date Updated :  10/16/08