Eligibility upon rehire

[gregburst]

Plan's eligibility requirement is 1 Year of Service. Entry dates are 1/1 and 7/1. Plan year is calendar year.

A person is hired from 4/1 thru 10/31 for three consecutive years, working 1000+ hours each time.

He's terminated and rehired each time.

Does this person ever meet eligibility and enter the plan?

I realize the document is the controlling force; it's a Datair VS document. But reading it through, I don't see the definitive answer to my question.

[pmacduff]

our docs (Corbel) define the initial eligibility period as a "12 month period during which the employee is credited with a year of service."

Year of service is then defined as 1000 or more hours during the eligibility computation period.

If they don't meet that in the first go around, the computation period switches to the Plan year.

In your example it appears that the employee met the 1000 hours in his first year of service.

Hired April 1st; his plan entry date would be Jul 1st of the year following his year of hire had he not termed.

IMHO - I think he has to come in that July 1st.

[Tom Poje]

the Accudraft language for that situation is as follows:

(e) Reemployment of an Employee Before a Break In Service and After Eligibility Requirements Are Satisfied. For any Plan Year in which the eligibility requirements under Section 2.1 are based on Years of Service, if an Employee Terminates Employment prior to the Employee's Entry Date in Section 2.1, the Employee had satisfied the eligibility requirements in Section 2.1 as of the Employee's Termination of Employment, and the Employee is subsequently reemployed by the Employer before incurring a Break in Service, then (1) the Employee will become a Participant as of the later of (A) the date that the Employee would enter the Plan had he or she not Terminated Employment with the Employer, or (B) the Employee's Reemployment Commencement Date, (2) the Employee's pre-termination Year(s) of Service (and Hours of Service during any computation period) will be counted for all purposes, and (3) the Vesting Computation Period and/or benefit accrual computation period, as applicable, will remain unchanged.

I don't think it really varies from document to document, just how one document describes the situation might be clearer than another.

[gregburst]

our docs (Corbel) define the initial eligibility period as a "12 month period during which the employee is credited with a year of service."

Year of service is then defined as 1000 or more hours during the eligibility computation period.

If they don't meet that in the first go around, the computation period switches to the Plan year.

In your example it appears that the employee met the 1000 hours in his first year of service.

Hired April 1st; his plan entry date would be Jul 1st of the year following his year of hire had he not termed.

IMHO - I think he has to come in that July 1st.

So apparently it doesn't matter that he never works for a consecutive 12-month period.

[Tom Poje]

that sounds correct, it's a matter of

1. did you work 1000 hours in a 12 month period?

2. It doesn't matter if you work 1000 in the first 3 months, you can't enter until the 12 month period is completed.

the 1000 hours in a 12 month period is required by law.

so some documents are written

300 hours in a quarter...but in no case will someone who works 1000 hours be excluded.

so someone could work 250 hours each quarter and therefore fail the 300 hours in a quarter, but since they worked 1000 hours in a 12 month period they still enter at that point in time.