2. The member’s correct hours worked
must be accurately reported and all applicable vacation monies earned by the
member for the hours must be timely paid to the Trust Office.
If an employer incorrectly
reports hours or fails to make the correct payment for the hours which are
reported, the Trust Office will not hold the proper amount of vacation funds
for the member to pay to him or her, and any transfer will not include such
unreported or unpaid funds.
3. For an electronic transfer of vacation
monies to successfully operate, the Trust Office must have a correct social
security number and correct Bank of America account number for each given
member prior to the time of the attempted electronic transfer to that member’s
Bank of America account. An erroneous
social security number or bank account number will cause an attempted
Electronic Transfer of vacation funds to fail for that member.
4. The Bank must be able to receive
the Electronic Transfer. Bank of
America accepts electronic transfers on its own schedule and only on certain
days of the week and at certain times of the day, which occasionally
temporarily changes without notice. Also, on occasion the Bank’s electronic
transfer system will go off-line without notice. In such cases, electronic transfers can not be accomplished until
the Bank of America system is on-line.
5. A member’s individual account may
be suspended or closed due to activities involving the member’s relationship
with Bank of America. In such a case,
no electronic transfer can occur. The
Trust Office will be unaware of any of the following circumstances until after
the member has notified us.
a. Bank of America suspends any account where the balance
drops to zero. Never withdraw all funds
from your account. Always leave several dollars in your account.
b. Bank of America may close or
suspend your account if you have any individual dispute with the bank
concerning financial matters unrelated to the union Vacation Fund.
Each member should be aware that any of the
circumstances listed above, or other unanticipated problems may cause a monthly
Electronic Transfer to be later than the first business day of the month. This is to say, you should never make a
commitment which requires that your vacation funds be available on any specific
day, as circumstances may arise which will delay or preclude an Electronic
Transfer to your account even where the monies have been received by the Trust.
Establishing Your Personal Bank of America Account
Before
Bank of America can issue you an individual Savings Account to accept the Trust
Office’s electronic transfer of your vacation funds, you must apply for an
account.
You
must contact your Local 32 Business Agent to procure a Bank of America account
application. After you have filled the
application out, the Local will forward it to the Bank for processing.
Based on past experience, it appears to take Bank of America approximately 4 to 6 weeks to process account Applications. If the Bank assigns a member an account, the member will receive written notification and an ATM card from the bank by mail. After assigning an account the bank is required to notify the Trust Office of the member’s account information. This notice allows the Trust Office to set up the member’s account in the Electronic Fund Transfer computer software so that monthly transfers of vacation monies can be made into a member’s account.
The
Trust Office is unable to electronically transfer vacation monies to a member
until it has received the appropriate account information from Bank of America. Generally member’s accounts are set up in
the Trust Office within two days of the office’s receipt of the account
information. The entire process from
the bank’s receipt of the member’s application until Trust Office account
set-up is approximately 6 to 8 weeks.
In some
cases Bank of America chooses for its own reasons not to accept a member’s
Vacation Savings Account Application.
In such cases the member will receive notification from Bank of America. Should this occur, the member should contact
his or her Business Agent and request that the Local forward a written request
that the Trust Office make a periodic vacation fund transfer to the member by
check.
Additional Information Relating to Electronic Fund
Transfers
There
are three essential pieces of information which the Trust Office must have
received from outside sources before it has the ability to make Electronic Fund
Transfers from the Trust to an individual Bank of America account. These are:
Ø
The
member’s correctly spelled name and correct social security number
Ø
The
member’s correct current Bank of America union savings account number.
Ø
The
member’s monthly hours worked and vacation monies withheld as reported by his
or her employer to the Trust
Personal
Information - Social Security/Address
The
Trust Office usually initially receives the member’s name and social security
information from an Employer Report detailing a new member/traveler’s first
work month hours. The Trust Office confirms member information by contact with
the Local 32 Business Office. The member is responsible to see that the
information provided to the Local is completely correct, so that the
information transferred by the Local to the Trust Office is accurate.
In the Vacation money transfer process, if the social security information is inaccurate it will not match the member’s bank account number as reflected on Bank of America records and all attempts by the Trust Office to transfer vacation funds into that member’s Bank of America vacation account will fail.
It
is important that the member keep the Local and the Trust Office notified of
his or her current mailing address, as in certain cases there may be a
reason to mail the member a check for monthly vacation funds. Without a current mailing address the Trust
Office is not capable of transferring vacation funds to a member by periodic
check.
Monthly Hours Worked and Vacation Monies Withheld
A
written report of the member’s monthly hours worked and vacation monies
withheld by the Employer are received by the Trust via monthly Employer Report
Forms (ERF) which the Employers file with the Trust Office. The member works in Month 1. The Collective Bargaining Agreement between
Local 32 and participating Employers requires that Employers report hours
worked and pay fringe benefit funds reported to the Trust Office by the 20th
of the month following Month 1. In some
cases allowances are made for later reporting due to specific
circumstances.
It
is important for the member to note that the Trust Office has no information
on a member’s specific vacation monies until they are reported by the Employer. The Trust Office records and attempts to
Electronically Transfer only the vacation monies which are actually reported
and actually paid by the Employer.
The Trust serves only as a pass-through for vacation monies. Should an Employer fail to report entirely,
or make an incorrect payment that omits vacation monies earned, the Trust
Office cannot make a vacation payment to a member for such unreported or unpaid
vacation funds.
For
purposes of making monthly electronic Transfer of vacation monies into any
member’s individual Bank of America account, the Trust Office has no short-term
ability or responsibility to determine whether the hours reported by an
Employer for a given individual are accurate.
It is the responsibility of the member to verify that his vacation
monies received over time equal that withheld by an employer.
Finally,
the member should realize there is a practical necessity for each employer to
individually establish an internal “cut-off date” which is prior to the end of
the calendar end of the month, for reporting to the Trust Office. Because of this, Employers may not report
hours worked and vacation funds withheld to the Trust on the exact calendar
basis that corresponds to the member’s pay-stub. This means that the amount of vacation funds received from the
Employer and then transferred by the Trust Office to an individual member for a
given month is likely not to exactly match the vacation monies actually
withheld by an Employer for the calendar month.
In
the event that an Employer fails to pay the proper vacation monies for hours
reported, the Trust has a continuing Employer Delinquency Collection Program in
effect for the purpose of attempting to recover unpaid benefits. However, until such time as a collection
effort has successfully recovered unpaid vacation funds, the Trust is not able
to transfer any vacation monies for the mis-reported hours. For long-term monitoring, the Board of Trust
has directed the Trust Office to participate in a periodic random Auditing
Program of all the Employers. An audit
of any individual employer is accomplished approximately every 24 to 36 months.
Transfer By Manual Check
For
members who have been unable to open Bank of America vacation fund accounts,
the Trust will make a manual check payment of current vacation monies if a
written request to do so has been received by the Trust Office from the Local
32 Business Manager.
The
Trust Office will process and make manual check payments to be mailed during
the first week of the month for vacation monies properly reported and received
during the prior month.
In
certain situations the Trust will make transfer by manual checks to other
members, usually when they have vacation monies due prior to receipt of Bank of
America account information, or as a short-term traveler from a jurisdiction
other than Local 32.
Members
should generally wait until approximately the 5th day of the month
prior to making an inquiry concerning the transfer of their Vacation Savings
funds.
Members of the Seattle Area
Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry Vacation Plan with questions should review
this policy memorandum and then contact either
their Business Agent at the Local 32 Business Office at (206)
277-6688
or
the Seattle Area Vacation Plan Coordinator at the Trust Office at
(206) 441-8585
or (800) 872-6234.