Page 46 - 2019 - erbe employee handbook.draft national

9
Company Benefit Programs
9-1. General Information & Eligibility
This portion of the employee handbook contains a broad overview of our benefit programs. For complete information regarding any of our benefit programs, please refer to the Summary Plan Description Booklets, provided at the time of enrollment. Replacement SPD’s may be obtained from Human Resources or viewed on the Erbe intranet site. The terms of such Summary Plan Descriptions are controlling over the terms of any and all of the policies below or elsewhere. Erbe reserves the right to amend, modify or terminate, in whole or in part, any or all the benefit programs without notice, consistent with applicable federal or state law.
Eligibility
All Full-time employees and their eligible dependents are offered choices within the comprehensive insurance program. Erbe defers to applicable law and regulations to define full-time status.
Initial Enrollment
When employees first become eligible to participate in Erbe’s employee benefits, they are afforded the opportunity to elect coverage under various flexible benefit options, such as medical, dental, vision, voluntary life insurance, and healthcare and dependent care spending accounts. Enrollment for long-term & short-term disability as well basic life and AD&D is automatic for all eligible employees.
Effective Date of Coverage
Coverage for eligible new enrollees becomes effective the first day of the month following date of hire. Employees have 31 days from the coverage effective date to make enrollment choices.
Annual Enrollment
Employees are provided the opportunity to reconsider flexible benefit elections each year during annual enrollment. At that time, eligible employees may elect to participate in one or more flexible benefits, change prior elections or cancel coverage altogether. Erbe benefits utilize the calendar year for its plan year; therefore, annual enrollment elections are effective on January 1st of each year. Open Enrollment is generally conducted in November of each year.
Affirmative Elections & Waivers
New employees and newly eligible enrollees are required to make affirmative elections for all benefit offerings. This means that employees must state whether or not they wish to enroll or waive coverage for each benefit offering and any of their eligible dependents. Employees must also provide affirmative choices during each subsequent open enrollment period.
Employees are advised to evaluate benefit choices carefully as elections remain in effect until the next enrollment period or a qualifying event occurs. In exchange for allowing employees to pay for flexible benefits on a pre-tax basis, federal tax law imposes limits on the employee’s ability to
46 | Company Benefit Programs Confidential/Internal Use Only