§4318 Employee Pension Benefit Plans

Summary

When a person returns to a job after serving in the uniformed services, their pension plan rights must be figured under this rule. Time spent in the uniformed services does not count as a break in service. Each period of military service is treated as if the person had worked for the employer when deciding whether accrued pension benefits cannot be taken away and when deciding how benefits keep growing. An exception: rights under the Thrift Savings Plan follow 5 U.S.C. 8432b, which does not change any other rights. The employer who rehires the person must pay any plan costs caused by treating the military time as work and must give the same employer contribution as for other employees during that time. When figuring those costs, earnings and forfeitures are not counted. For multiemployer plans, the plan sponsor decides how to divide the cost, or if the sponsor does not decide, the cost goes to the last employer before the military service or, if that employer no longer exists, to the plan. If benefits depend on the worker’s own contributions, the worker can make up missed payments up to what they would have paid if they had stayed on the job. Those makeup payments must be made starting when they are rehired and may be made for up to three times the length of the military service, but not more than five years. Pay used to calculate employer costs or required worker payments must be the rate the worker would have received but for the military service, or if that rate is not clear, the worker’s average pay over the 12 months before the service. An employer who contributes to a multiemployer plan must tell the plan administrator in writing about the reemployment within 30 days.