Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 

Protecting America's Pensions 1200 K Street, N.W., Washington, D,C. 20005-4026 

April 22, 2008 

Re: Appeal 2006-0272 I~ ________________ ~I, Case 197610, 

Grani te City Chemical Workers Pension Plan (the 

"Granite City Plan") 

De ar 1'------___ -----"1 : 

~----W-e--a-r~e responding to the appeal you filed on behalf of ~I ~~~~ 

I concerning PBGC's determination that he is not entitled 

~t-o--a~b-e~n-e-7fit under the Granite City Plan. For the reasons stated 

below, we changed PBGC's d~termination by finding thatl lis 

entitled to a benefit. PBGC's Benefits Administration and Payment 

Department will send I I a new determination of his benefit 

amount and annuity start date, with a new 45-day appeal right. 

PBGC's Correspondence and Your Appeal 

PBGC's June 30, 2005 determination explained that the Plan 

required at least five y~ars of vesting service to qualify for a 

benefi t. PBGC said that I I had only 3. 3D years of service 

when the Plan terminated, effective December 6, 2002. PBGC also 

included a benefit statement showing the information PBGC used to 

calculate his benefit. 

'-------=--____ ---=-----lIAugustD, 2005 appeal said that he was employed by 

National Steel Corporation for six years from October of 1996 until 

May [J, 2002. To support his appeal, he included (1) a copy of his 

earnings history from the Social Security Administration for the 

years 1996 through 2002, and (2) copies of two Revised Bricklayer 

Layoff and Recall Lists from National Steel, one dated April 11, 

2000 and the other October 12, 2000, which show his hire date as 

October 0, 1997. 
In accordance with established PBGC procedures, we asked 

PBGC's Benefits Administration and Payment Department ("BAPD"), the 

group responsible for determining and paying PBGC benefits, to 

provide I I with a further explanation. BAPD's February 1, 

2006 response said that he was hired on October 0, 1996 as a 

temporary employee with an employee code of FTNB ("full-time with 

no benefits"). His temporary employment was terminated three times 

beforede was converted to a regular full-time employee on 

March ,2000. BAPD explained that, under the Plan, his 

continuous service began as of his last hire date. BAPD noted that 

National Steel itself determined he had 3.30 years of continuous 

service as of December[], 2002. 

BAPD's letter also said that the list I I submitted with 

his appeal included language specifically stating that the purpose 

of the list was for layoff/recall, vacation and time off, and that 

National Steel did not use this list for pension purposes. BAPD 

gave / /30 days to provide the Appeals Board with additional 

information if he still believed PBGC's determination was wrong. 

According to the appeal you filed for I I February 26, 

2006, neither the collective bargaining agreement between Granite 

Ci ty and the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers International 

Local #8 (the "CBA") nor the Granite City Plan excludes "temporary 

employees" from pension coverage. In particular, you noted that 

(1) Section 2 of the CBA provides that Local #8 is the 

exclusive collective bargaining representative "for all 

its members employed by the Company" and that "all 

members" clearly includes temporary employees; 

(2) the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA") 

requires a Plan to base participation on hours and years 

of service as an employee with no exception for an 

employee simply because an employer calls him 

"temporary;" and 

(3) even if the CBA did state that service as a temporary 

employee did not count for pension purposes, "that 

concept would be contradicted by the clear language of 

the Plan Document itself, " which provides that 

"'Employee' means any Employee who ... is covered by a 

[CBA]" and that '" Participant' means any Employee who 

shall have had at least one year of continuous service 

and shall have attained the age of 21 years and who, from 

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time to time during the period in which this [CBA] is 

effective, is accruing continuous service." 

You further stated that, under the Elapsed Time Method used by the 

Plan to measure continuous service, I I accrued more than 

five years of vesting service between October D, 1996 (the date he 

first performed an Hour of Service with Granite City) and 

December [J, 2002 (the date the Granite City Plan terminated). You 

contend that (1) his absences due to lack of work during this 

period were layoffs, not terminations and (2) because no such 

absence exceeded two years, he had no breaks in continuous service. 

Lastly, you said that even if the Appeals Board finds that 

service as a temporary employee is treated differently for pension 

computation purposes, I I is still entitled to service from 

October 0, 1997 (his date of hire shown on the Regular Layoff and 

Recall List) until December 0 2002. 

Background 

The Granite City Plan terminated, effective December 6, 2002, 

without sufficient assets to provide all benefits PBGC guarantees 

under Title IV of ERISA. The terms of the Plan, the provisions of 

ERISA, and PBGC regulations and policies determine I I 

entitlement to a guaranteed benefit. PBGC regulations require that 

a participant must satisfy the conditions of the plan necessary to 

establish the right to receive the benefit on or before the earlier 

of the date the participant's empl?yment ended and the date the 

plan terminated. 

Section 4A of the CBA established a Regular Layoff and Recall 

List ("Regular List"). The Regular List, which consisted of 49 

bricklayers, was "the only basis for consideration in the event of 

layoff or recall to work." Appendix C of the CBA permitted Granite 

City to hire bricklayers from Local #8 who were not on the Regular 

List "to supplement the available Bricklayers on the Regular List 

when needed." According to Appendix C, "all Bricklayers who work 

under the terms of this Agreement who are not on the Regular List 

will be considered temporary employees." 

The records PBGC' saudi tors obtained from the former Plan 

Administrator show the following work history for ,---I ____ ~I: 

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1. October U, 1996 Hired as temporary employee 

2. October 0, 1997 Temporary employment ended 

3. June 0, 1998 Rehired as temporary employee 

4. June 0, 1998 Temporary employment ended 

5. April 0, 1999 Rehired as temporary employee 

6. April U, 1999 Temporary employment ended 

7. August D, 1999 Rehired as temporary employee 

8. March 0, 2000 Converted to full-time employee 

9. December 6, 2002 Granite City Plan terminated 

10. Mayn, 2003 Employment terminated 

Plan records consistently included as Plan participants only those 

bricklayers who were or had been on a Regular List. When a 

temporary employee was selected to fill a vacancy on the Regular 

List under CBA section 4A. 5, Granite City (1) converted that 

employee to regular full-time status, (2) treated the employee as 

covered under the Granite City Plan on the conversion date, and (3) 

once the employee became a Plan participant, established the last 

hire date before the conversion as the pension start date. Based 

on this information, PBGC determined that I I pension stirt 

date was August [J, 1999. 

Discussion 

Section 1.1(b) of the Granite City Plan defines Employee as 

"any Employee who, from time to time during the period in which 

this [Pension] Agreement is effective, is covered by . . . [the 

CBA]. I I worked as a temporary employee from October D, 

1996 through March D, 2000, and as a regular employee from 

March c=J, 2000 through December [J, 2002, the date the Plan 

terminated. He was a member of Bricklayers Local #8 and covered by 

the CBA during this entire period. Because the Plan's definition 

of Employee included all employees of the company covered by the 

CBA and the CBA covered temporary employees, the Board found that 

[ [ is an Employee pursuant to Plan section 1.1 (b) . 

Plan section 1.1(c) defines Participant as "any Employee who 

shall have had at least one year of Continuous Service and shall 

have attained the age of 21 years and who, from time to time during 

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the period in which this [Pension] Agreement is effective, is 

accruing continuous service." I Iwas over 21 when he was 

hired and satisfied the one-year participation requirement on 

October 0, 1997. 

Under Plan section 2.8, a Participant with at least five years 

of continuous service is eligible for a Deferred Vested Pension. 

Section 5.1 defines Continuous Service as service "calculated from 

the Employee's last hiring date" until his or her employment 

termination date. Section 5.1(b), however, excludes from 

Continuous Service that portion of any absence due to layoff or 

physical disability that exceeds two years. Although I I 

work for Granite City stopped and started a number of times, his 

periods of unemployment never exceeded two years. Accordingly, we 

found that I Ihad at least five years of Continuous Service 

from his initial hire date until the Plan's December 6, 2002 

termination date. 

Decision 

Having applied the law, the terms of the Plan, and the terms 

of the CBA to the facts in this case, we found thatl Ihas 

at least five years of Continuous Service and is, therefore, 

entitled to a benefit under the Granite City Plan. 

We will forward a copy of this decision to PBGC's Benefits 

Administration and Payment Department. They will sendl I a 

new determination of his benefit amount and annuity start date, 

with a new 45-day appeal right for matters not decided in this 

letter. 

Meanwhle, if you or I I need other information from 

PBGC, please call PBGC's Customer Contact Center at 1-800-400-7242. 

Sincerely, 

Linda M. Mizzi 

Member, Appeals Board 

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