Benefit Reciprocity in the Electronic Age
Every member should receive credit
for the hours they work and the contributions
earned – that was the goal of
the International Reciprocal Agreements
for health and welfare and pension
funds developed in 2000 and it is still
the goal today.
“Back in the late ‘90s,
we heard from members that they were
not always receiving credit for the
benefit contributions earned when working
outside of their home Locals,” says
BAC Secretary-Treasurer James Boland. “As
a result, we had members losing their
eligibility for benefits, funds were
not growing at the rate they should
have, members were refusing to travel
for work, and contractors were having
difficulty staffing jobs because of
these reciprocity problems. In response,
we established uniform International
Reciprocal Agreements, which require
benefit funds signed to the agreements
to send a traveling member’s
contributions back to their home Local.”
The response from the Locals has been
very positive. To date, 153
funds have signed the International
Reciprocal Agreement for Defined Contribution
and Defined Benefit Pension Plans and
105 have signed the Health and Welfare
Agreement.
The move to electronic reciprocity
should make the transfer of contributions
back to a traveling member’s
home local benefit funds faster, easier
and more error-proof then ever before,
make it easier for Locals and fund
offices since authorization forms and
hours and contribution information
will now be available online, and allow
members to update their information
through a secure website.
To help local benefit fund
administrators become comfortable with
the new Electronic Reciprocal Transfer
System (ERTS), training programs were
conducted for Local officers and their
fund administrators in conjunction
with the fall round of Regional Council
meetings. “I’m
glad I attended the ERTS training,” says
Jay Hopp, Administrator for Local 6
Illinois Peoria Chapter Benefit Funds. “Once
it’s up and running, ERTS will
provide both traveling BAC members
and benefit administrators with the
best service available.”
To take
advantage of this new technology:
- The
fund must be signed to the International
Reciprocal Agreements.
- Signatory funds
must adopt amendments to these Agreements
for electronic reciprocity, and sign
a contract with the Electronic Reciprocal
Transfer System service provider.
- Each user of ERTS
must personally sign a confidentiality
agreement when they log on to preserve
participant privacy.
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“Once
it’s up and running, ERTS
will provide both traveling BAC
members and benefit administrators
with the best service available.”
–Jay Hopp,
Fund Administrator |
To make sure
that you receive credit for the fund
contributions earned when traveling,
you must:
- Make sure your home
funds and the funds in the Local
you’re
traveling to are signed to the
International Reciprocal Agreements.
A member can check to find out which
funds are signed online, by contacting
their Local, the BAC Reciprocal Clearinghouse,
or by visiting BAC’s website at
www.bacweb.org and clicking on “Member
Benefits” and “Reciprocal
Clearinghouse.”
- Sign an “employee
reciprocal authorization” form,
obtained from the website or from
your home Local, and mail or fax
copies to the office of the fund(s)
covering the area in which you
will be working. You should also
follow-up with a call to make sure
that the form has been received.
If your home fund and the fund
that you will be working under
are both using ERTS, then soon
you will be able to do all of these
steps online. Registering through
ERTS is only necessary one time.
Once you are in the system, all
participating funds will be able
to access the information they
need and you will be able to update
your home fund and contact information
online.
- Last, when you travel to a new area to work, immediately
contact the Local in the area to let the Local officers
know your work location and employer. This is a critical
step for two reasons. First, the Local into whose
area you’ve traveled won’t be able to
adequately represent you and ensure that you’re
receiving the correct wages and benefits unless they
know you’re there. Secondly, a member that works
outside of his/her home Local is required by Code
4B of the Union’s Constitution to check in with
the Local into whose area they have traveled for work:
“As soon as possible,
but in no event later than
forty-eight (48) hours after securing
employment outside the territory
of the member’s
home Local, a traveling members
shall advise the Local in whose territory
the member is employed, through
the Business Agent or Financial Secretary,
unless the Local handles such
matters through a Job Steward, of
the name of the member’s employer
and the job location.”
To learn more about the International
Reciprocal Agreements and ERTS
contact:
BAC Reciprocal Clearinghouse
Suite 750
1776 Eye Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20006
Phone: (202) 383-3985
Fax: (202) 628-4824
Website: www.bacweb.org
(click on Member Benefits, click
on Reciprocal Clearinghouse)
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