2000 Minnesota Statutes

     181B.02 Definitions.  

    Subdivision 1.  As used in sections 181B.01 to 181B.17, the 
 following terms shall have the meanings given.  

    Subd. 2.  "Employer" means any person, firm or corporation 
 who employs 100 or more people at least one of whom is employed 
 in this state at any time within one year prior to the date that 
 it ceases to operate a place of employment or a pension plan or 
 such longer period as may be prescribed by the commissioner 
 pursuant to section 181B.14.  

    Subd. 3.  "Place of employment" means any location within 
 this state at which an employer employs any employees at any 
 time within one year prior to the date that the employer ceases 
 to operate at such location or such longer period as may be 
 prescribed by the commissioner pursuant to section 181B.14.  

    Subd. 4.  "Employee" means any person employed at the place 
 of employment at any time within one year prior to the date when 
 the employer ceases to operate the place of employment or a 
 pension plan or such longer period as may be prescribed by the 
 commissioner pursuant to section 181B.14.  "Employee" also means 
 any person who is not employed by the employer but who was 
 formerly employed in this state, and is eligible or will be 
 eligible without the earning of additional pension credits to 
 receive a pension benefit from the employer's pension plan.  

    Subd. 5.  "Commissioner" means the commissioner of labor 
 and industry.  

    Subd. 6.  "Ceases to operate a place of employment or a 
 pension plan" means: 

    (a) The complete termination of operations at a place of 
 employment, or 

    (b) A substantial reduction in the number of employees at a 
 place of employment, or 

    (c) The termination or substantial reduction of pension 
 plan operations or benefits for all or a portion of an 
 employer's employees.  

    The term shall not mean any temporary cessation of 
 operations or reduction of employees.  Neither shall the term 
 mean any cessation of operations by a single employer who 
 participates in a pension plan to which more than one employer 
 makes contributions if such cessation does not also entail the 
 termination of the master pension plan.  In determining whether 
 any reduction has been substantial the commissioner shall take 
 into consideration not only the absolute size of the reduction 
 but the relative size of the reduction as it relates to the 
 corporate and employment history of the group or subgroup 
 suffering the reduction.  In addition, the commissioner may find 
 that a number of unsubstantial reductions are, for the purposes 
 of sections 181B.01 to 181B.17, equivalent to a substantial 
 reduction.  When an employer ceases to operate a place of 
 employment or a pension plan but offers to retain without loss 
 of pension credit all of the employees in comparable jobs with 
 equal or increased compensation at another location within the 
 state or at some other location outside this state as specified 
 in any voluntary agreement authorized by section 181B.10, 
 sections 181B.01 to 181B.17 shall not apply except as it affects 
 persons not employed by the employer but who are eligible or 
 will be eligible without the earning of additional pension 
 credits to receive the pension benefits from the employer's 
 pension plan.  

    Subd. 7.  "Pension plan" means any plan, fund or program 
 which is established, maintained or entered into by an employer 
 for the purpose of providing retirement benefits for its 
 employees, or their beneficiaries and which is designated as a 
 qualified pension plan under section 401 of the United States 
 Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended through December 31, 
 1992, but does not mean any plan established by collective 
 bargaining agreement which is excluded from the coverage of 
 United States Code, title 29, section 186(c) (5) (B) by United 
 States Code, title 29, section 186(g) and for which the employer 
 has no administrative responsibility and no responsibility for 
 the establishment of the retirement benefit schedule.  Sections 
 181B.01 to 181B.17 shall not apply to any retirement fund or 
 program providing benefits only for public employees of the 
 federal government or the state government or a subdivision of 
 the state, nor shall it apply to any pension plan established on 
 behalf of a religious, charitable, or educational organization 
 as defined by section 501 (c) (3) of the United States Internal 
 Revenue Code of 1986, as amended through December 31, 1992.  
 Further, sections 181B.01 to 181B.17 shall not apply to any 
 money purchase, profit sharing, or stock bonus plan in which no 
 definitely determinable level of benefits is stipulated to be 
 given to qualified plan participants at normal retirement age or 
 some other age.  

    Subd. 8.  "Normal retirement benefit" means that benefit 
 payable under a pension plan in the event of retirement at the 
 normal retirement age.  

    Subd. 9.  "Normal retirement age" means the lesser of 
 either the normal retirement age as prescribed by the pension 
 plan or age 65.  

    Subd. 10.  "Accrued portion of the normal retirement 
 benefit" with respect to employees with ten or more years of 
 covered service means the larger of either the present value of 
 the pension benefit which the employee has earned prior to 
 cessation under the terms of the pension plan itself or the 
 present value of the normal retirement benefit to which the 
 employee would be entitled under the plan as in effect on the 
 date of the cessation if the employee continued to earn pension 
 credits based on the covered service which would have 
 accumulated had the employee continued as a plan participant 
 until normal retirement age or if the employee continued to earn 
 annually until normal retirement age the same rate of 
 compensation as that which had been earned prior to cessation, 
 upon which a pension credit would have been computed under the 
 plan at the rate specified by the plan for the years subsequent 
 to the cessation, multiplied by a fraction not to exceed one, 
 the numerator of which is the total number of years of covered 
 service as of the date of cessation, and the denominator of 
 which is the total number of years the employee would have had 
 in covered service in such plan as of normal retirement age if 
 the employee had continued to be an active participant in the 
 plan until attaining such age.  

    With respect to employees with less than ten years of 
 covered service, the defining term means the present value of 
 the total amount of pension benefits which have been vested on 
 or prior to the date of cessation.  Where the above formulas are 
 inapplicable or inequitable the defined term means that portion 
 of the normal retirement benefit to which the commissioner 
 determines actuarially the employee should be entitled based on 
 the covered service of the employee, as of the date of the 
 cessation.  

    Subd. 11.  "Covered service" means the longer of either: 

    (a) The period of employment with an employer including 
 predecessor employers as allowed in section 181B.07, clause (1) 
 which is recognized under the terms of the employer's pension 
 plan for the purposes of determining either an employee's 
 eligibility to receive benefits under the plan or the amount of 
 such benefits, or 

    (b) The amount of time after institution of the present 
 pension plan or any substantially similar predecessor plan that 
 an employee has been continuously employed in a full time 
 capacity by an employer including predecessor employers as 
 allowed in section 181B.07, clause (1) prior to the cessation of 
 operations.  Temporary and seasonal layoffs and unpaid vacations 
 and leaves of absence need not be credited as covered service 
 but neither shall they serve to interrupt an employee's 
 continuity of service.  Part time employment may be credited as 
 covered service if the commissioner determines that a previous 
 full time employee has been reduced to part time status as part 
 of a plan to evade provisions of sections 181B.01 to 181B.17.  

    Subd. 12.  "Vested right" means a legal right obtained by 
 an employee participating in a pension plan to that part of an 
 immediate or deferred pension benefit which arises from the 
 employee's covered service under the plan and is no longer 
 contingent on the employee remaining covered under the plan.  

    Subd. 13.  "Vested pension benefit" means that accrued 
 portion of the normal retirement benefit of an employee 
 participating, or who has participated, in a pension plan to 
 which the employee has a vested right.  

    Subd. 14.  "Nonvested pension benefit" means the accrued 
 portion of the normal retirement benefit of an employee 
 participating in a pension plan to which the employee does not 
 have a vested right.  

    Subd. 15.  "Present value of the total amount of nonvested 
 pension benefits" means that sum of money which if earning 
 interest in a secure investment from the date of the cessation 
 of operations onward would equal the value of the nonvested 
 pension benefit on the date on which the plan participant 
 reached normal retirement age.  

    Subd. 16.  "Present value of the total amount of vested 
 pension benefits" means that sum of money which if earning 
 interest in a secure investment from the date of cessation of 
 operations onward would equal the value of the vested pension 
 benefit on the date on which the plan participant reached normal 
 retirement age minus that sum of money which is set aside in 
 trust or exclusively reserved to finance pension benefits for 
 plan participants.  

    Subd. 17.  "Present value of the normal retirement benefit" 
 means that sum of money which if earning interest in a secure 
 investment from the date of the cessation of operations onward 
 would equal the value of the normal retirement benefit on the 
 date on which the plan participant reached normal retirement age.

    HIST: 1974 c 437 s 2; 1986 c 444; 1993 c 375 art 8 s 14