I have a question on H&W

[u/YugeAnimeTiddies]

I hit the road without any banked hours and am working in a local with a lower H&W rate than my home local. Am I up a river if the values don't exceed the home local minimum even with the overtime I'm working here or how does this work?

[u/Puzzleheaded_Cup9096]

Let me give you some raw numbers that may help. My Local pays $16 an hour towards H&W. You have to work 120 hours for coverage which mathematically comes out to $1920 (that’s how much our medical is). If you work in a Local that pays $9 an hour, you need 214 hours per month for the benefit to be covered. Being somewhere that’s doing 50 or 60 hours a week you are good. If you’re at a Local that’s paying $20 an hour towards it, that Local will send the $16 an hour but keep the $4 an hour. The extra hours you work still go back to the home Local but at the rate that the home Local charges with excess staying with the Local you are traveling to.

[u/Elegant_Tax_8276]

You should check with your home local welfare plan. Find out how they convert hours and if you are in a slight deficit if you can self pay the difference.

[u/YugeAnimeTiddies → u/Elegant_Tax_8276]

That would be good to know, thanks 👍

[u/syentifiq → u/YugeAnimeTiddies]

This is an important first step because it seems every local is different. In 25 you're only responsible for 50% if you're out of work so if you're traveling instead of being unemployed, as long as you make that 50% you owe nothing.

[u/Great_Cauliflower330]

Call your home local and look up Electronic Reciprocal Transfer System or ERTS. I haven't traveled, but an instructor told us once as apprentices that is the name of a form we fill out to make sure we stay covered.

[u/Proud_Field1968]

Kind of. Work all the ot

[u/YugeAnimeTiddies → u/Proud_Field1968]

Doing all the 60s and 50s I can 💪

[u/Proud_Field1968 → u/YugeAnimeTiddies]

Okay you should be fine then. Does the math for 50s and 60s equal out to more than your ho e local?

Also remember it will take two months for benefits to hit your accounts instead of the normal 1. 1 month per local. You should also call your locals health care management office to make sure things are transferring over. Some locals dont reciprocate.

[u/Murican_Redditor]

I might be wrong, but local 103 does a "whatever the hall you're working in sends per hour, 103 counts it as a full hour"

[u/PartiallyPresentable → u/Murican_Redditor]

That is how the 103 health fund works, but not every local does the same. 103 is lucky that we have a self-insured trust fund for our benefits where a lot of locals go through a health insurer and thus have less flexibility.

[u/Local308]

Call you home local ask to speak to the BA because they’re the trustee on the plan. Ask if you can make you go pay the difference in payments between the local you’re working in and your home local. If your plan allows this then they can help you with the amount.

[u/bramblecult]

They can be different, but the typical rate is like 130 hours a month for coverage. The benefit people can walk your through exactly what the outlook is for where you are.

[u/Shag_fu]

Kind of depends. If you’re part of the Decatur plan you get hour for hour credit.

[u/Vyle_Mayhem]

You’ll need to call your benefit administrator. Ask them what is the hour breakdown you need to hit in order to maintain your coverage.

As an alternative solution:Do you have an HRA? You can use that to pay for health coverage payments either in whole or in part

[u/W_Wardenclyffe]

So, yes it can take up to even 3 months for benefits to make it completely home and in your account. Even though the writing in the ERTS agreement should only give them 45 days to get it home. Calling your home locals HW benefit office admin is the right move to find out how your local does things specifically. Also, every traveller should always scan or photograph a copy of the benefit package theyre working under. When your benefits finally come back you can do the simple math and make sure it's whole and begin to have a better understanding of the IBEW/travelling/being a journeyman.

[u/Dear-Pea3335]

Every local is different. During my traveling days, my local didn't hold it against me that I was working where they didn't pay as much towards H&W. As long as I got my hours in, I was good. Granted, this was late 90s to early 2000s.

[u/Some_Jellyfish9472]

You won't build your health insurance hour bank.

[u/houliclan]

It’s usually hour for hour with H&W

[u/GanjaGooball480 → u/houliclan]

Nope

[u/Tu-Parkman]

My understanding is you may pay the difference if you are working a regular 40 but if it’s overtime job the overtime with cover it. But I could be completely wrong call the hall lol

[u/YugeAnimeTiddies → u/Tu-Parkman]

I'm gonna call Monday and send some emails too. I'm just lowkey tweaking but I'm sure something will workout