Health & Welfare Funds

---

Engineers Joint Welfare Fund Statement of ERISA Rights

Engineers Joint Welfare Fund
      The name of this Plan is the Engineers Joint Welfare Plan. The Plan was created by Local Unions of the International Union of Operating Engineers (the "Participating Local Unions") and the employers who make contributions to the Plan (the "Contributing Employer"). The purpose of this Plan, which is a self administered Welfare Plan, is to provide certain medical and other benefits to participants and their eligible dependents. You are considered to be a participant in this Plan if you work in Covered Employment for a Contributing Employer who has executed a collective bargaining agreement with the Participating Local Unions or a separate written agreement with the Plan, provided you have satisfied the eligibility requirements.
      This Plan is a multi-Union, multi-Employer Trust Fund that provides certain and various benefits to eligible participants employed by Contributing Employers. Many participants are represented by Participating Local Unions, but the Plan also covers other persons whose employer has entered into a separate written agreement with the Plan to provide coverage for them.
      The Participating Local Unions are Local Unions #17 Buffalo NY, #106 Albany NY, #463 Niagara Falls NY, #545 Syracuse NY, and #832 Rochester NY of the International Union of Operating Engineers.
      Most Contributing Employers and the Participating Local Unions negotiate collective bargaining agreements pursuant to which the Plan is maintained. Other Contributing Employers enter into separate agreements with the Plan pursuant to which contributions are made for their employees. These agreements specify the amount the Contributing Employers will contribute to this Fund on behalf of the participants they employ. The employer contributions are combined with the earnings from investments made by the Trustees on behalf of the Fund, and are accumulated in a Trust Fund. Money in the Trust Fund is then used to provide benefits to participants and their eligible dependents, and to defray the reasonable administrative expenses incurred in operating this Plan.
      This Plan is administered by a Board of Trustees on which the Participating Local Unions and the Contributing Employers are equally represented. Thus, the Board as a whole is the Plan Administrator. As such, the Board is responsible for making decisions regarding, for example, the rules of eligibility, types of benefits offered, administrative policies, management of Plan assets, and the interpretation of Plan provisions.


Statement of ERISA Rights
      As a participant in the Engineers Joint Welfare Plan, you are entitled to certain rights and protections under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). ERISA provides that all Plan participants shall be entitled to certain rights and disclosures.
      In addition to creating rights for plan participants, ERISA imposes duties upon people who are responsible for the operation of the employee benefit plan. The people who operate your Plan, called "fiduciaries" of the Plan, have a duty to do so prudently and in the best interest of you and other Plan participants and beneficiaries. No one, including your employer, your union, or any other person, may fire you or otherwise discriminate against you in any way to prevent you from obtaining a welfare benefit or exercising your rights under ERISA.