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Work for Certain Governmental Entities

If you leave Covered Employment to work for one of the following governmental entities (under collective bargaining agreements with the Union), you may be eligible to have your pension calculated using the accrual rate in effect at the time you retire from such entity, and not at the time you separate from Covered Employment. Prior to April 1, 1998, the accrual rate used to calculate your pension was the rate in effect at the time you separated from Covered Employment under the Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 73 Pension Fund.

In order to qualify for this provision, you must:

  • Have earned at least 20 Pension Credits under the Local 73 Plan prior to being employed by the governmental entity;
  • Have a minimum of one year of Employment with one of the following governmental entities, under a bargaining agreement with the Union:
    • City of Chicago
       
    • County of Cook
       
    • County of Cook Forest Preserve
       
    • Chicago Metropolitan Sanitary District
       
    • Chicago Board of Education School Board
       
    • Chicago Park District, or
       
    • a governmental agency within the jurisdiction of Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 73 that is not a Contributing Employer to the Pension Plan;

       

  • Work under a bargaining agreement between the Union and one of the above entities after December 31, 1996, and
  • First retire under the Plan after December 31, 1996.

Please note that you cannot earn Pension Credit or Vesting Service under the Local 73 Pension Fund for employment with these governmental entities as these employers do not contribute to the Local 73 Pension Fund on your behalf. In addition, if you are not vested with the Local 73 Pension Fund when you go to work with one of these governmental entities, you must return to work for an Employer that contributes to Local 73 before you have a permanent break in service in order to keep the Pension Credits you earned prior to working for one of these entities.

Work for a Non-Signatory Employer

If you perform work in the Sheet Metal Industry and such employment is not covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Union and the Employer, on or after January 1, 1990:

  • You will lose all past service credit for the purpose of calculating your benefit; provided, however, that this loss will not decrease the pension benefit you had accrued as of December 31, 1989.
  • The Effective Date of an Early Retirement or Deferred Pension, or resumption of payments in the event that you had been on pension and then returned to employment, will be delayed 6 months for
  • any calendar quarter in which you performed one hour or more of such employment. An Effective Date of pension cannot be delayed under this provision beyond age 65.
  • You cannot retire under a Disability Pension.
  • In the event of your death before Retirement, no Preretirement Lump Sum Death Benefit will be payable to your beneficiaries.

Recovery of Previous Status

If you performed work in the Sheet Metal Industry not covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Union on or after January 1, 1990, you can regain your previous status. To do so, you must return to Covered Employment with the Plan, and earn months of Pension Credit under the Plan that equal the number of calendar months in which you worked at least one hour in employment in the Industry that was not covered by a Sheet Metal Collective Bargaining Agreement.

This opportunity to restore previous status is available only once.