Section 35 - AASB 119 - Employee Benefits - August 2015 - One example of a multi-employer defined benefit plan is one where:

35One example of a multi-employer defined benefit plan is one where:

Start here

Get a plain-English read of 35

Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in AASB 119 - Employee Benefits - August 2015.

35 One example of a multi-employer defined benefit plan is one where:
(a) the plan is financed on a pay-as-you-go basis: contributions are set at a level that is expected to be sufficient to pay the benefits falling due in the same period; and future benefits earned during the current period will be paid out of future contributions; and
(b) employees’ benefits are determined by the length of their service and the participating entities have no realistic means of withdrawing from the plan without paying a contribution for the benefits earned by employees up to the date of withdrawal. Such a plan creates actuarial risk for the entity: if the ultimate cost of benefits already earned at the end of the reporting period is more than expected, the entity will have either to increase its contributions or to persuade employees to accept a reduction in benefits. Therefore, such a plan is a defined benefit plan.
36 Where sufficient information is available about a multi-employer defined benefit plan, an entity accounts for its proportionate share of the defined benefit obligation, plan assets and post-employment cost associated with the plan in the same way as for any other defined benefit plan. However, an entity may not be able to identify its share of the underlying financial position and performance of the plan with sufficient reliability for accounting purposes. This may occur if:
(a) the plan exposes the participating entities to actuarial risks associated with the current and former employees of other entities, with the result that there is no consistent and reliable basis for allocating the obligation, plan assets and cost to individual entities participating in the plan; or
(b) the entity does not have access to sufficient information about the plan to satisfy the requirements of this Standard.
In those cases, an entity accounts for the plan as if it were a defined contribution plan and discloses the information required by paragraph 148.
37 There may be a contractual agreement between the multi-employer plan and its participants that determines how the surplus in the plan will be distributed to the participants (or the deficit funded). A participant in a multi-employer plan with such an agreement that accounts for the plan as a defined contribution plan in accordance with paragraph 34 shall recognise the asset or liability that arises from the contractual agreement and the resulting income or expense in profit or loss.

Example illustrating paragraph 37
An entity participates in a multi-employer defined benefit plan that does not prepare plan valuations on an AASB 119 basis. It therefore accounts for the plan as if it were a defined contribution plan. A non-AASB 119 funding valuation shows a deficit of CU100 million(a) in the plan. The plan has agreed under contract a schedule of contributions with the participating employers in the plan that will eliminate the deficit over the next five years. The entity’s total contributions under the contract are CU8 million.

Example illustrating paragraph 37

An entity participates in a multi-employer defined benefit plan that does not prepare plan valuations on an AASB 119 basis. It therefore accounts for the plan as if it were a defined contribution plan. A non-AASB 119 funding valuation shows a deficit of CU100 million(a) in the plan. The plan has agreed under contract a schedule of contributions with the participating employers in the plan that will eliminate the deficit over the next five years. The entity’s total contributions under the contract are CU8 million.