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The Pension Plan is designed to provide you a pension based upon your accumulated Years of Service and hours worked.

Benefit Units

Generally, the Plan bases Benefit Units on employment covered by the Plan after June 30, 1961. Your Benefit Units under the Plan are equal to the lesser of:

• Your number of actual Years of Participation in the Plan; or
• The number of years and quarters (rounded to the next lower quarter) determined by dividing your total Benefit Hours of Service by 1600.

In general, a Benefit Hour of Service is each hour of covered employment for which you are paid or entitled to payment for performance or non-performance of duties. You can also receive Benefit Hours of Service for the following:

• Time spent in military service (refer also to the “Participation” Section of this SPD),
• Periods during which you received weekly accident and sickness benefits from the Electrical Welfare Trust Fund; or
• Periods during which you received Worker’s Compensation benefits up to a maximum of 40 hours per week limited to 13 weeks for any one disability.

To compute your Benefit Units, the Plan considers your Years of Participation to be complete years and complete quarters between the first day of the month in which Benefit Hours are first credited to you and the later of:

• December 31 of the last plan year in which you are credited with at least 400 Vesting Hours of Service; or
• The last day of the last month in which you are credited with any Vesting Hours of Service if you did not earn at least 400 Vesting Hours of Service in the plan year which includes that month and if you earned at least 400 Benefit Hours of Service in the previous year’s Plan, provided, however that,
• Any years in which you did not receive 400 Vesting Hours of Service, are disregarded.

Benefit Rates

The Plan calculates your pension by multiplying your Benefit Units by the rate in effect when you retire and then applying the rules relating to the type of pension (e.g., Normal or Early Retirement) and payment you will receive.

If you have had any Breaks-in-Service, more than one rate will apply. The benefit rate table is below:

A Journeyman Rates

Residential Wiremen and Teledata Technicians Rates

Once you earn a Residential Benefit Unit or a Teledata Benefit Unit, it will always be considered a Residential Benefit Unit or a Teledata Benefit Unit, as applicable. However, the amount of the Benefit Unit is measured by the date or dates on which you cease to be an Active Participant under the Plan, not when you ceased to be a Residential Wireman or Teledata Technician. If you earn Residential Benefit Units, Teledata Benefit Units and/or A Journeymen Wireman Benefit Units, your pension benefit calculation would be based upon a combination of those units.

Delayed Retirement—Increased Benefit Rates

If you keep working in covered employment after you are eligible for an unreduced benefit (normal retirement date of age 62 or eligibility for the Rule of 85 as described in the “Types of Pensions” Section of the SPD), you will continue to earn additional retirement benefits. For the Benefit Units you earn after you are eligible for unreduced benefits until retirement, the following rates will apply:

Increases After Retirement

Generally, the amount of your benefit will not increase after you retire. However, the Board of Trustees does have discretion to increase retiree benefits as a group if the Board, in its sole discretion, decides that it is appropriate to do so.