Retirement, Working After Retirement, and Suspension of Benefits

In order to receive monthly pension payments from this Plan, you must be retired. Being “retired” means that you are not working during any calendar month in the type of employment and under the conditions described below. You may, however, work at any other type of job without having your pension payments stopped.

Retirement at or after Age 62

To be considered retired at or after age 62, you must not work in “Industry Service” for 40 hours or more in a given calendar month.

Industry Service is work which can be described by all of the following statements:

• Work for an employer whose business activities are of the type engaged in by any Employer required to contribute to this Plan at the time your retirement benefits began; and
• Work which makes use of any skills you used while contributions to this Plan were being made on your behalf, or supervisory activities related to those skills, or other occupation using those skills; and
• Work within the states of California and Nevada.

Retirement Before Age 62

To be considered retired before age 62, you must not work in “Industry Service” for one or more hours in a given calendar month.

Participant’s Right to Information Concerning Suspendible Employment

You may request a determination as to whether employment that you are contemplating will lead to a suspension of your monthly pension benefit payments.  Unless there are unusual circumstances involved, your request will be answered within a reasonable period of time, but not later than 10 days following the next scheduled Board of Trustees meeting which is held at least two weeks after your request is received.

Retirement After Required Beginning Date

Your benefits are not subject to suspension after your required beginning date.

Suspension of Pension Payments

If you are a pensioner and take a job of the type described above, you are no longer considered to be retired and must notify the Plan Office, in writing, within 31 days after you start work. Your benefits will then be suspended.

Furthermore, as a condition to resuming your pension and receiving future payments, you must furnish upon request such information, as the Plan requires to verify your continuing eligibility. If you fail to notify the Plan Office of such work, the Plan will presume that you are working in Industry Service in either California or Nevada and exceed the Plan’s minimum number of allowable hours for the month.

If your payments are suspended, you will be given notice by the Plan of such suspension and the specific reasons relating to the suspension.

Pension Payments Following Suspension and Benefits Accrued After Retirement

Upon re-retirement, benefits shall be resumed with payment beginning no later than the third month after the last calendar month for which your benefit was suspended. When resumed after suspension, the pension earned prior to the suspension shall be in the same payment form and amount received prior to suspension. However, the pre-suspension benefit may be recalculated under the following circumstances:

• If your pension benefit was first payable as an Early Retirement Benefit, then upon your first (and only the first) re-retirement or death, your benefit will be recalculated as if you were retiring for the first time (based on your current age and the terms of the Plan in effect on your original Pension Effective Date) with your current age then reduced for each month you received Early Retirement Benefits before suspension in accordance with the provisions of the Plan.
• If your pension benefit is suspended due to your working in Covered Service before a Computation Break in Service occurs and a benefit improvement is made which applies to the service you earned prior to your suspension, then upon your first (and only the first) re-retirement or death, your benefit will be recalculated and the benefit improvement will apply to all the service you have earned, if:

You earn at least 480 Hours of Covered Service during the first 12-consecutive-month period of suspension and each 12-consecutive-month period of suspension thereafter. If you re-retire before the end of any 12-consecutive-month period after the first one, the minimum number of Hours of Covered Service needed for that short period shall be equal to the number of full months during the short period multiplied by 40.

A Pensioner who returns to work in Covered Service may be entitled to receive additional pension benefits when he/she retires again based on any additional benefits earned during the period he/she returned to Covered Service. The additional pension benefits earned may have a separate Annuity Starting Date with respect to the election of any payment options available under the Plan as described below.

The additional benefits earned will be determined as of the date the Pensioner retires again. If the Pensioner was:

• Younger than Normal Retirement Age when his/her pension first started, he/she may elect to receive the additional benefits in any payment form provided by the Plan.
• Normal Retirement Age or older when he/she last retired, the payment form elected at that time shall govern any additional benefits earned through reemployment after that date.

Recovery of Overpayments

If a Pensioner received pension payments for any month during which he/she engaged in Industry Service after the period of suspension, the Plan will recover the amount of such overpayments. This may be in the form of offsetting the amount of your future monthly pension payments until such overpayment is totally recovered. You will be notified of the amount of the specific deductions prior to the offset.