A delinquency is cheapest when you find it and most expensive when the trust does.
ERISA requires contributing employers to pay what the plan and the collective bargaining agreement require, and it gives the fund the right to sue when they do not. We look for gaps between hours reported and hours worked before a trust payroll audit does, so any correction happens on your terms.
ERISA makes a delinquency cost more than the missed contributions.
Section 515 of ERISA obliges an employer to contribute under the terms of the plan and the agreement. When a fund sues to enforce it and wins, the statute tells the court what to award.
Contributions and Interest
The fund recovers the unpaid contributions plus interest on them. Interest runs from when each contribution was due, which is why an old gap costs more than a new one.
Liquidated Damages
The court also awards the greater of a second measure of interest or liquidated damages set by the plan, subject to a statutory cap. The plan documents set the terms, so we read them before sizing any exposure.
Fees and Costs
The employer pays the fund’s reasonable attorney’s fees and the costs of the action. A dispute that reaches court means paying for both sides’ lawyers, which is why early correction is the cheaper path.
A delinquency usually starts as a reporting error, not a refusal to pay.
The gaps we look for are the ones payroll creates without anyone deciding to.
Covered Work Coded Elsewhere
Work within the agreement’s scope may be coded to a non-union job or a subcontractor. The trust counts it as covered work, so we compare job coding with the agreement’s description of the work.
Hours That Never Reach the Report
Overtime, travel or shop time the agreement counts may never appear on the remittance report. We reconcile time records to reported hours, because a trust auditor starts from time records too.
Starts, Transfers and Terminations
A worker who starts mid-month or moves between locals can be reported late or to the wrong fund. We check the first and last month of each covered employment, which is where those errors tend to sit.
The review mirrors the trust’s payroll audit, so its findings reach you first.
Trust auditors request payroll registers, time records, tax filings and remittance reports for a look-back period. We review the same records, sooner.
Sizing the Exposure
For each gap we calculate the contributions owed and the interest and damages the plan documents provide for. You see the number before the trust does, which is why the decision about how to correct it stays with you.
Correcting With Counsel
How a past underpayment is raised with a trust is a legal question. The attorneys we work with advise on the approach, and we prepare the supporting schedule.
Preventing the Next One
We turn each finding into a control: a coding rule, a report check or a calendar entry. The same gap then does not reappear in the next audit period.
What employers ask about delinquency exposure.
How far back can a trust audit?
The trust documents and the agreement set audit rights, and the time limit for a lawsuit depends on the claim and the court. Counsel confirms the exposure window; we quantify what falls inside it.
Can owners be personally liable?
Courts have held individuals liable for unpaid contributions in some circumstances. That is a question for counsel, and one more reason to find a gap early.
What if we disagree with the trust’s findings?
Findings can be challenged when the underlying records support the employer. We rebuild the numbers from your records, and counsel handles the dispute itself.
How benefits for non-union roles are coordinated with the trust →
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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