A. ACTIVE MEMBER ELIGIBILITY RULES

1. “Active” Member Defined.

Individuals who are members in good standing in IBEW Local 6 as required by a Union security agreement with a Contributing Employer, or who are otherwise eligible to participate in or to maintain Plan participation by law, are Active members of the Plan provided that the eligibility requirements set forth in paragraphs 2-6 below are followed.

Individuals employed with IBEW Local 6, the EISB, and the San Francisco Electrical Workers Apprenticeship Trust are also eligible to participate in the Plan subject to rules in a signed subscription agreement.

2. Hour Bank Reserve Account System.

1. Hour Bank Reserve - Hours Credited. A reserve account system will be maintained by the Plan Office. The account will include a separate record for each Active member and will show the member’s accumulation of hours worked reported from each Contributing Employer to the Plan or reciprocated to the Plan pursuant to the Electrical Industry Health and Welfare Reciprocal Agreement (“Reciprocal Agreement”) described in paragraph 5 below, beginning on page 8, and subject to subparagraph c, below. Hours that are not used to provide eligibility are credited toward your hour bank reserve. You may build up your hour bank reserve to a maximum of 1,000 hours and shall have no claim for hours or contributions reported in excess of 1,000 hours. Moreover, the Board of Trustees may reduce, extend or terminate your reserve hour bank at any time. There is no guaranteed or vested right to such hours.
    
2. Loss of Hour Bank Reserve Hours. If you have not had eligibility under the Plan for a period of twelve consecutive months or more, any and all hour bank reserve hours will be canceled. Should you thereafter return to Covered Employment, you will be required to reestablish eligibility as provided for in paragraph 3 below.
   

   You will lose all of your hour bank reserves and will not be entitled to further coverage under the Plan if you:

   1. continue to be employed by an Employer who ceases contributions to the Plan pursuant to the termination of such Employer's Collective Bargaining Agreement; or
   2. become employed by an employer in the same industry as any Employer that contributes to the Plan and your employer is not a Contributing Employer to the Plan or any IBEW-sponsored health plan.
   
   
3. Pro-rating Eligibility Credit. Effective January 1, 2006, if your Employer is a Contributing Employer to the Plan but whose contribution rate is different from the Inside Wire contribution rate, your eligibility credit under subparagraph a, above, will be prorated based on the relationship of your Employer's contribution rate and the Inside Wire contribution rate after being adjusted for the difference in the work week or benefit level.

3. Initial Coverage.

In order to qualify for initial coverage under the Plan, you must have accumulated an hour bank reserve credit of a minimum total of 300 hours of Covered Employment within a continuous twelve-month period for which contributions have been made pursuant to the terms of a recognized Collective Bargaining Agreement. Coverage is to be effective on the first day of the second month following the month in which the 300 hour requirement is met. As an example, if you begin working in January and accumulate 300 hours by the end of March, your coverage will become effective May 1st.

4. Continued Coverage.

Currently the charge for coverage is 120 hours per month against your accumulated hours until insufficient hours remain in your hour bank reserve.Prior to January 2007, the charge for coverage was 120 hours. The amount of this charge may be changed at any time by the Board of Trustees. Hours worked in one month shall not apply toward coverage in the next month, but in the second following month. In other words, your eligibility will continue for as long as your reserve hour bank contains at least 120 hours. The 120 hours can come from one of the following sources:

1. contributions made on your behalf by a Contributing Employer; or
 
2. from hour bank reserves; or,
 
3. if you are eligible, under the self-pay or temporary disability provisions set forth in III.A, or III.B.

Requisite hours cannot be made up of a combination of self-pay and hours worked; or of self-pay and hour bank reserves. Exception: Apprentices in good standing who are attending day classes, may, in such an event, count day class hours actually attended up to the number of hours required to maintain eligibility or the number of hours attended in day classes in a particular month, whichever is less. Class hours may not be carried over from month to month to maintain eligibility.

5. Industry Reciprocity.

In order to re-establish or preserve continuity of coverage in this Plan, you may apply to have contributions made on your hours worked transferred from a “Reciprocal Fund” (a health and welfare plan sponsored by a Local Union of the IBEW and chapter of NECA) in accordance with the Reciprocal Agreement. To qualify, this Plan must be your “Home Fund” (the health and welfare plan to which contributions will be transferred and through which your health and welfare benefits will be covered), you must register on ERTS (the Electronic Reciprocal Transfer System), and you must present a valid photo identification at your Home Fund, the Participating Fund in which you have registered for work or an Assisting IBEW Local Union. You must agree both in writing and electronically (via ERTS) to (1) the legally binding effect of utilizing an electronic signature on ERTS and (2) an approved authorization and release regarding reciprocal transfers under the Reciprocal Agreement.

You may designate this Plan as your Home Fund if you are a member of IBEW Local 6 and have been eligible for benefits under this Plan at any time during the past six years. You may designate this Plan as your Home Fund if you are a member of another IBEW Local Union that is party to the Reciprocal Agreement if:

1. you are are currently eligible for benefits under this Plan,


2. you have not been eligible for benefits under your Local Union's Health and Welfare Plan at any time during the past six years, and


3. you establish your intent to return to work under the jurisdiction of this Plan as soon as work is available

The effective date of the transfer is the first day of the month in which you have properly registered on ERTS, provided you meet the eligibility requirements to claim the Plan as your Home Fund as described above. Upon approval of the application based on the foregoing rules, the lesser of (l) contributions in an amount provided in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement of the Plan, or (2) contributions in an amount provided in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement of the Participating Fund in which you are working, will be transferred. If the contribution rate in this Plan is greater than that in the remitting Participating Fund, the Plan Office shall, on behalf of the Plan, prorate the hours reported based on relationship the Participating Fund rate bears to this Plan’s rate.

Reciprocity under this paragraph 5 will remain in effect unless, and until, you complete a “Request for Cessation of Transfer” on ERTS. For further information regarding the procedure, please contact the Plan Office.

The terms of the Reciprocal Agreement may be changed or amended from time to time by vote of the participating trusts throughout the United States. To determine whether changes have occurred in the Reciprocal Agreement since the printing of this booklet, contact the Plan Office.