The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced today that it has approved the application submitted to the Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Program by the Plasterers Local 82 Pension Fund (Plasterers Local 82 Fund). The plan, based in Portland, Oregon, covers 317 participants in the construction industry.
On February 1, 2019, the Plasterers Local 82 Fund implemented a benefit suspension under the terms of the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA) in order to address the plan’s troubled financial condition at that time and its projected insolvency. The plan reduced benefits of about 250 plan participants. On average, affected participants’ benefits were reduced by 25 percent.
PBGC’s approval of the SFA application enables the plan to restore benefits suspended under the terms of MPRA and to make payments to retirees to cover prior benefit suspensions. SFA will enable the plan to pay retirement benefits without reduction for many years into the future. The plan will receive $20.5 million in SFA, including interest to the expected date of payment to the plan.
“Without this Special Financial Assistance, these 317 plasterers would not receive the retirement benefits they have earned through years of hard work,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, chair of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Board of Directors. “Funding provided by the Biden-Harris administration has given these workers the assurance of the secure retirement they deserve.”
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