Eligibility for furloughed employees due to Covid

Interesting question - suppose a plan has an eligibility requirement of (x) hours in the first 6 months of employment, and if not met in the first 6 months, the employee becomes subject to the 1 Year of Service requirement.

Now assume the employee works 5 months, then due to Covid economic issues, the employer furloughs this employee (and others) for a period of time - let's say 3 months.

What's your opinion on an employer granting eligibility service while furloughed due to Covid, operationally, and allowing them to enter as soon as reemployed?

P.S. - my point in all this is to see if there is a way around amending plan to use elapsed time. I don't see that the pre-approved document language is flexible enough to handle an amendment to credit hours of service service while furloughed, other than sideways through elapsed time if they aren't furloughed too long. And FWIW, just doing it operationally without appropriate document language, while "nice" of the employer, doesn't seem like an acceptable option.  I suppose it could be submitted under a 5307, and I'd be surprised if the IRS would reject it, but it's a pain, costs more money, and hard to know how long it would take.

Check your document, I think they would likely come in under the service spanning rules but you are correct it is possible they could get axed out by the hours requirement.

Thanks Lou. They do NOT currently use elapsed time, so service spanning rules don't apply at this point. 

Would an open enrollment date bring in more employees than they would like?

Can you clarify what you mean by an "open enrollment date" - I'm not certain what you mean? Thanks.

Our document allows for a "Special Participation Date", that provides for immediate participation for anyone that is employed, or technically an "Eligible Employee" on that date.  There is also a provision for limitations, such as keeping the age requirement, for example.  I was just thinking that if there was a date in time that brought in the employees you wanted to bring in even though they did not meet the actual entry requirements, if your document also has such provisions that might work.

Of course that may bring in more employees than intended depending on what date you choose and how many new employees are also employed on that date.

Got it. Thank you for the input.