| | Member Contractors who are approved to train, and have apprentices in their employ who are indentured and registered with the State of California, Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) and/or the Federal Bureau of Apprenticeship Training (BAT), shall pay to WECA the fees (published in the Benefits and Training Contribution Rate Schedule) in effect at the time of payment.
|
Apprenticeship
training and benefit contributions shall be based
upon apprentice work hours reported to WECA by a
contractor each month. (Please review the Billing
and Collections Policies within this document.)
The apprenticeship
training and benefit contribution rates are
established by the ATC and/or its Trustees. The
rates can be found on the Benefits and Training
Contribution Rate Schedule included in the Forms
section of the handbook. |
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TRAINING CONTRIBUTIONS
|
| | Member Contractors must make training contributions to WECA on behalf of their apprentices who are enrolled in any of WECA's Training Programs. Contribution amounts are based on the Program in which an apprentice is enrolled.
All training contributions made on behalf of apprentices shall be deposited into a trust account maintained by WECA ATC.
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HEALTH AND WELFARE CONTRIBUTIONS
|
| | Commercial Inside Wireman Program
|
| | | Health and welfare contributions must be made by all Commercial Member Contractors to WECA on behalf of WECA apprentices indentured in the WECA Commercial Inside Wireman Training Program.
|
| | | All Commercial apprentices shall participate in this Plan unless otherwise agreed to by the WECA ATC.
|
| | | Commercial apprentice health and welfare contributions (which are set by the WECA ATC) shall be deposited into a health and welfare trust account maintained by WECA ATC.
|
| | | The WECA ATC Health and Welfare Plan shall govern the terms and conditions of benefits to be provided and must be agreed to by each contractor approved to train Commercial apprentices. Copies of both the Commercial Apprentice Summary Health Plan Document and the Commercial Apprentice Health Plan are included in this Handbook.
|
| | | All health and welfare contributions received for Commercial apprentices shall be retained by the WECA ATC Health and Welfare Trust account. Upon accumulating 140 hours' worth of contributions for an apprentice, WECA will purchase and pay insurance premiums for him or her, starting the second month following attainment of those 140 hours' worth of contributions.
|
| | | For Example: A Member Contractor reports that an apprentice worked 160 hours in the month of January. WECA will purchase health insurance for the month of March and put the remaining
20 hours in the apprentice's insurance "hour bank" to be applied toward future months' premiums, if needed. An apprentice can bank up to
560 hours - equal to four (4) months of health insurance premium coverage.
|
| | Residential Wireman and VDV Program
|
| | |
Residential Wireman apprentices and VDV Program apprentices are
not eligible to participate in the WECA Health and Welfare
Plan. Health and Welfare Contributions will not be accepted by
WECA for Residential Wireman apprentices or VDV Program
apprentices.
Major medical coverage for WECA apprentices indentured in either the WECA Residential Wireman or Sound and Communications Systems (Voice/Data/Video) Installer Training Programs is to be provided directly to those apprentices by the Member Contractors employing them and is not administered by WECA.
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PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS
|
| | Commercial Inside Wireman Program
|
| | | Pension contributions must be made by all Commercial Member Contractors to WECA on behalf of WECA apprentices indentured in WECA's
Commercial Inside Wireman Training Program.
|
| | | All Commercial apprentices shall participate in this Plan unless otherwise agreed to by the WECA ATC (see Pension Contribution Exemptions).
|
| | | Commercial apprentice pension contributions (which are set by WECA ATC) shall be deposited into a pension trust account maintained by WECA ATC.
|
| | | The WECA ATC Pension Plan and Trust shall govern the terms and conditions of pension benefits to be provided. The current pension rates can be found on the Benefits and Training Rate Contribution Schedule included in the Forms section of this Handbook.
|
| | | When a Commercial apprentice accumulates the required OJT and classroom instruction hours to move to the next Period of Apprenticeship, a pension increase will take effect the first hour worked after the apprentice has completed those requirements. (WECA will bill at the higher rate for the entire period if the hours worked are not broken out on the State or Federal Apprentice Monthly Hours Worksheet to show the effective date of the change.)
|
| | | Individual Apprentice Pension Contribution Minimums
|
| | | 1st year and | 0 to 1,600 | On-the-Job hours, | $ 0.00 per hour |
| | | 2nd year and | 1,601 to 3,200 | On-the-Job hours, | $ 0.50 per hour |
| | | 3rd year and | 3,201 to 4,800 | On-the-Job hours, | $ 1.00 per hour |
| | | 4th year and | 4,801 to 6,400 | On-the-Job hours, | $ 1.50 per hour |
| | | 5th year and | 6,401 to 8,000 | On-the-Job hours, | $ 2.00 per hour |
| | |
Note: The WECA ATC Pension Plan has been modified to accept contributions over
the minimums stated above in order to accommodate possible
excess contributions and to comply with State Private Wage and
State Prevailing Wage package requirements.
|
| | | Pension Contribution Exemptions
|
| | | A Commercial Member Contractor may be exempt from paying Pension Plan contributions to WECA ATC for Commercial apprentices only if the required pension contributions are paid directly into a qualified company, or other, pension plan that meets the following criteria:
- Plan must have been in existence a minimum of two years.
- The Employer’s plan must be intended to be a income tax
qualified plan under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue
Code.
- Contractor must send the plan's annual financial statement to WECA, which must show it has no unfunded liabilities.
- Plan must provide for contributions that are equal to contributions identified and/or modified in the WECA ATC Plan.
- Apprentices must be 100 percent vested from the first hour they are employed by contractor.
- A monthly report must be submitted to WECA showing an apprentice's hours worked, accompanied by the monthly pension contribution amount that was deposited into the apprentice's pension plan account. A principal of the company must sign this report of pension contributions.
- Contractors allowed to contribute apprentice pension contributions to their own company plans who do not continue to qualify for this exception, or do not comply with the monthly/annual reporting requirements, will not be allowed to train WECA apprentices. Within five days following any non-compliance violation, WECA will pull all Commercial apprentices and dispatch them to other member contractors.
|
| | Residential Wireman and VDV Program
|
| | |
Residential Wireman and VDV Program apprentices are not eligible
to participate in the WECA Health and Welfare Plan. Pension
contributions will not be accepted by WECA for Residential
Wireman apprentices or the VDV Program apprentices.
|
CONTRIBUTION RATE CHANGES
|
| | If training, health and welfare or pension contribution rates change, WECA will notify all Member Contractors. When a contractor receives a new Benefits and Training Contribution Rate Schedule indicating a minimum rate increase or decrease, that increase or decrease will take effect with the first hour
reported for a WECA apprentice on the effective date.
(WECA will bill at the higher rate for the entire period if the hours worked are not broken out on the MIR Apprentice and Journeyman Monthly Hours Worksheets to show the effective date of the change.) |
