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PARTICIPATION UNDER THE PLAN

If You Become Disabled

If you become disabled and qualify for Workers’ Compensation benefits or accident and sickness benefits under a local Port Plan, you will receive credited hours during the period of your disability for purposes of determining your eligibility for future coverage under this Plan. Hours will be credited in the contract year in which you are disabled based upon a rate determined by the benefit Plan for which you qualified in the prior contract year.

Disability credited hours will be granted at the following rates per week, pro-rated for a partial week, assuming a five day work week:

Benefit Plan Disability Credited Hours Maximum Number of Credited Hours Each Contract Year
Premier 26 Hours/Week 1,300
Basic Plan 20 Hours/Week 1,000
Core Plan 14 Hours/Week 700

For example, if you were disabled beginning August 29, 2013, when you were covered in the Basic Plan and your disability continued past September 30, 2013, you would receive 92 disability credited hours for the contract year ending September 30, 2013 (4.6 weeks times 20 hours per week). If you had earned at least 1,208 credited hours because of work during that contract year, you would have qualified for the Premier Plan in the 2014 calendar year and you would receive disability credited hours at the rate of 26 hours per week beginning in the first week in October 2013.

If you become disabled and qualify for Workers’ Compensation benefits or accident and sickness benefits under a local port plan before you are covered for MILA benefits, you will not receive disability credited hours for the remainder of that contract year. Thereafter, if you remain disabled, disability credited hours will accrue from the beginning of the next contract year at the rate for the Benefit Plan for which you qualified in the previous contract year.

For example, if you were not covered in MILA but you had earned 1,208 credited hours when you were disabled on August 29, 2013, you would not receive disability credited hours for the contract year ending September 30, 2013. Beginning October 1, if you continued to be disabled, you would earn credited hours at the rate of 20 hours per week, the rate for the Basic Plan, the Plan for which you will qualify on January 1, 2014.

Disability Credited Hours Rules- Effective October 1, 2014

MILA disability credited hours based upon the receipt of Workers’ Compensation or an accident and sickness benefit Plan provided by a local Port Plan shall be limited to twenty-four (24) months per illness or injury. When a participant has exhausted the 24 months, he or she may apply for up to an additional year of credited service by submitting an application to MILA. A participant may apply for more than one (1) additional year of credited service by submitting subsequent applications to MILA annually. Furthermore, the 24 month limit is a per illness or injury limit, not a lifetime limit.

The twenty-four (24) months per illness or injury limit for disability credited hours will take effect on October 1, 2014. Anyone who has received MILA disability credited hours through September 30, 2014, will retain those hours. Effective October 1, 2014, no one can receive a total of more than twenty-four (24) months of disability credited hours per illness or injury based upon the receipt of Workers’ Compensation or accident or sickness benefits provided by a local Port Plan unless the person has submitted an application to MILA to receive up to an additional year of credited service and the application has been approved. The decision by MILA is final and binding with no right of appeal. The per illness or injury limit of twenty-four (24) months will include disability credited hours received before and after October 1, 2014.

Any MILA participant who is receiving Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) benefits cannot receive credited hours based upon the receipt of Workers’ Compensation or accident or sickness benefits.

You will continue to receive disability credited hours even after payments from Workers’ Compensation or a local accident and sickness program run out, provided you:

  • Are still disabled as defined in the Workers’ Compensation or local accident and sickness Program;
  • Submit proof of disability which is satisfactory to MILA;
  • Have not retired; and
  • Have not yet reached the 24-month maximum.

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