The threat of forced retirement at or near 20 years under an Internal Revenue Service rule no longer exists in American Maritime Officers.
The right of all AMO members to remain at work at or near the 20-year mark regardless of age - with no risk to earned monthly retirement benefits, and with full participation in a new employer-paid AMO retirement plan - was secured in a Feb. 11 amendment adopted by the joint union-employer trustees of the American Maritime Officers Pension Plan. The amendment revised the AMO Pension Plan rehabilitation plan adopted recently by the trustees in compliance with the federal Pension Protection Act of 2006.
"This amendment spares AMO members the difficult career choices they were confronting after the IRS in January 2010 denied our request to allow AMO members to return to work after their monthly retirement benefits begin," said AMO National President Tom Bethel. "AMO members can now plan retirement confidently and on their own timetables."
Under the amendment, active AMO deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters members with at least 20 years of covered employment as of January 2011 can continue to work while deferring unreduced annuities due from the defined benefit AMO Pension Plan until these AMO members choose to retire.
AMO members with fewer than 20 years of covered employment as of January 2011 can continue to work while accruing credits leading to 20-year pensions. These credits will apply for vesting and eligibility purposes only.
AMO members who reach or exceed 20 years of covered employment after January 1, 2011, can qualify for unreduced early retirement benefits, regardless of age.
All monthly benefits due from the AMO Pension Plan upon retirement would be paid in the amounts calculated for AMO members as of December 31, 2009 - the date benefits payable under the AMO Pension Plan were "frozen" as part of the rehabilitation plan, which was developed when the AMO Pension Plan entered "critical" funding status as defined in the Pension Protection Act in October 2009.
In all cases, AMO members will earn contributions to individual accounts established under the new employer-paid AMO Defined Contribution Plan - which complements monthly annuities, the AMO 401(k) Plan and the AMO Pension Plan Money Purchase Benefit.
"In addition to providing AMO members with the planning flexibility they need and deserve, this amendment allows AMO to continue meeting its manpower commitments under collective bargaining agreements and government shipping charters," Bethel said. "Without this amendment, several hundred AMO members would retire involuntarily and at too young an age at the end of this year.
"Had we not acted quickly and responsibly to the IRS decision, this mass membership exodus would make it impossible for our union to fill the jobs we are committed to as the nation's largest union of licensed seagoing professionals," Bethel continued. "It would make it impossible for AMO to focus on even more long-term employment in diverse domestic and international trades."
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