USERRA Amendment

[Guest ooota]

Any guidance will be greatly appreciated. . . Must a multiemployer annuity fund (money purchase pension plan) be amended to come into compliance with USERRA? If so, what options do the trustees have to choose from in regard to assessing responsiblity for the contributions? In that an annuity fund is not a commingled fund such as a pension fund, can the trustees provide that the plan will assume responsibility for the contributions as a plan expense? Or are the trustees limited choosing between the following options: (a) allocating responsibility to the last employer or (b) allocating responsibility to all contributing employers? One last question: Can the plan and the employer split the cost?

[KJohnson]

Yes you have to amend. Here is an article regarding various options for multis

http://www.segalco.com/publications/bullet...treservists.pdf

It provides:

Funding Issues In accordance with USERRA, a multiemployer plan can adopt rules to assign the contribution responsibility. If the plan does not adopt its own rules, the law provides that the last

employer for whom the employee worked before entering military service is liable for making the contributions. If that employer is no longer in operation when the veteran is reemployed, the funding obligation reverts to the plan. Sponsors of multiemployer plans are free to consider alternative ways to allocate the cost to specific employers, such as prorating the obligation among the employers for whom the employee worked during the 12 months preceding the military service. It also appears that the plan may cover the cost directly, or the employers and unions may agree to treat it that way in the collective bargaining agreement.