Reciprocals

[Guest ooota]

An employee is working in our jurisdiction and the Pension Fund is collecting the full contribution amount of $2.70 per hour on behalf of the employee. Must the Fund reciprocate the entire $2.70 to the employee's home local, if the contribution rate of the home local is only $1.00 per hour? If the Fund is required to only reciprocate the lower amount, what is to be done with the remaining monies ($1.70)? Thanks. Any cites to authority you can give me would be much appreciated.

[Effen]

I think this is an issue between the locals and not so much a Plan issue. It should all be spelled out in the recriprocal agreements. If you don't have recriprocal agreements, I don't think there is any requirement to recriprocate contributions. Without the agreement, the different locals would be treated like seperate employers.

That said, I work with several locals who pro-rate the hours credited under the home local to account for contribution differences between recripricating locals. Based on your example, the person might get 2.7 hours credited for every hour he works as a traveler.

If your benefit home benefit formula is based on a percentage of contributions, no adjustment would be necessary since it would automatically provide additional benefit for the additional contribution. If your home benefit is based on $*YOS, than you might want to consider extra service credits.

Either way, I think you need a reciprocal agreement.