§1415 Transfers Pursuant to Change in Bargaining Representative

Summary

When an employer leaves one multiemployer pension plan because the workers’ bargaining representative changed after September 25, 1980, and those workers will join a different multiemployer plan, the old plan must move the workers’ nonforfeitable benefits and related liabilities to the new plan. The employer must tell the old plan within 30 days after it decides the change will happen. The old plan must tell the employer how much withdrawal liability the employer owes, that it plans to transfer the affected benefits, and how much will be moved. The old plan must also tell the new plan what benefits, assets, and liabilities will be transferred. The new plan has 60 days to ask the federal agency that handles these appeals to stop the transfer. The transfer is blocked only if that agency finds the new plan would suffer substantial financial harm. If the employer does not object in 60 days, or the new plan does not appeal or loses its appeal within 180 days, the transfer goes forward. After a transfer, the employer’s withdrawal liability to the old plan is reduced by the amount equal to (the value of the unfunded vested benefits moved for that employer) minus (the value of the assets actually moved). If the old plan is in reorganization, or a transfer would force it into reorganization, the old plan cannot send assets. Instead it must transfer nonforfeitable benefits up to the employer’s withdrawal liability (or benefits equal to that liability if the benefits are worth more). The old and new plan sponsors may agree to a different kind of transfer under other rules, but the employer’s reduction in liability is treated the same as described above. If the employer withdraws from the new plan within 240 months after the transfer, its liability to the new plan is the larger of the normal new-plan liability or the old-plan reduction adjusted down by 5 percent for each full 12-month period after the transfer. Definitions: “appropriate amount of assets” means the extra value of the benefits being moved above the employer’s withdrawal liability (determined without regard to section 1391(e) of this title). “Certified change of collective bargaining representative” means a change certified under the Labor‑Management Relations Act or the Railway Labor Act.