Alaska Teamster-Employer Welfare and Pension Trusts

3.4 Break-in-Service Loss of Benefits Before Vesting

This Section 3.4 applies to vesting in your Normal Retirement Age Benefit for Plan Years after June 30, 2001. If you work less than 250 hours under the Plan during a Plan Year, you incur a Break-in-Service at the end of that Plan Year. If you are not fully vested, you cease to be a Participant at that time. You also forfeit the unvested portion of your Vesting and Benefit Service from any prior year and have no right to receive a benefit from the Pension Plan based on that service.

3.4.1 Reinstatement of Benefits

If you incur a Break-in-Service because you are not yet vested and you work less than 250 hours in a Plan Year, you must once again have 250 Hours of Work in one Plan Year to re-establish your participation. If you re-establish your participation no later than five Plan Years from the date you incur the Break-in-Service, your service will be reinstated.

3.4.2 Waiver of Break-In-Service

In certain limited circumstances, a Break-in-Service is waived. A waiver is used solely for the purpose of preventing a Break-in-Service. To qualify for a waiver, you must meet one of the following requirements:

• You are physically or mentally disabled, provable to the Trustees’ satisfaction;
• You are in employment covered under a Collective Bargaining Agreement between your employer and the Union, but such employment does not require the employer to contribute to the Plan on your behalf (i.e. Dues only agreement);
• You are on a leave of absence from employment because of your pregnancy, the birth of your child, placement of a child with you for adoption, or to care for a child following such birth or placement;
• You are on a military or uniformed services leave covered by the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (“USERRA”) and return to Covered Employment. (In addition to avoiding a Break-in-Service, you may also receive vesting and benefit credit for an eligible USERRA leave.) For further details, see Section 13.4, Military and Uniformed Service; or
• You are on a leave covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

3.4.3 Waiver of Break-in-Service During Maternity and Paternity Leave

The following rules apply to Maternity or Paternity leave:

• You will receive a waiver for the number of hours required to prevent a Break-in-Service for the Plan Year in which your Maternity or Paternity leave begins;
• If you do not need this waiver to prevent a Break-in-Service for the Plan Year in which your leave begins, you will receive this waiver for the following Plan Year to the extent you are absent due to a Maternity or Paternity leave; and
• If you are absent from work due to layoff or similar reason when leave begins, you will not receive a waiver for Maternity or Paternity leave.

To receive a waiver for Maternity or Paternity leave, you must provide the following to the Trust Customer Service Office:

• A statement that the absence was due to your pregnancy, the birth or adoption of your child, placement of a child with you for adoption, or caring for your newborn or newly adopted child; and
• Information required to determine the length of your absence.