Multiemployer PlansMultiemployer plans have evolved in industries in which workers move frequently among employers--for example, in coal mining, construction, the garment trades, and trucking. Such plans are subject to collective bargaining and cover multiple employers. Representatives of the union and of the various employers administer the plan. A given employer contributes to a worker's pension fund during the time that the worker is in the firm's service. A worker accumulates benefits and vesting rights as long as he or she is employed by member firms. Multiemployer plans constitute only a small percentage of all retirement plans (less than 0.5 percent), but they cover a large number of people: in 2000, for instance, they covered nearly 12 percent of all qualified plan participants.
|