3.2 Full-time Employees
In general, a full-time employee must join HOOPP and begin making contributions as of the date of hire. Once enrolled in the Plan, an employee will generally remain a member of HOOPP until they leave all employers where they are enrolled and contributing. Guidance for certain situations is provided below. For information on employees who participate at more than one HOOPP employer, please see 3.3 Part-time Employees and Membership Through More than One HOOPP Employer.
Hired Before Employer Joined HOOPP
Full-time employees hired before your organization joined HOOPP do not have to join the Plan but may choose to do so at any time once your organization has joined the Plan. An employer may choose to make HOOPP enrolment compulsory for all or certain classes of employees where the employer elects to offer HOOPP as a new pension plan for their organization in which case employment law considerations may apply.
Your employees can visit hoopp.com/joinHOOPP anytime to learn more about the Plan, and try the Join HOOPP Tool. The Join HOOPP Tool provides your employees with personalized guidance, including more information about the Plan and an estimate of what their future pension could be if they joined, including estimates for buying back service and spousal pension options.
Weekend Workers
A class of full-time employees known as "weekend workers" includes employees who typically work 30 hours per week, but are paid (and contribute on) the equivalent of 37.5 hours of pay, and thus are treated as full-time employees. A new employee hired as a "weekend worker" must enrol in the Plan immediately. Contributory service will be earned at the full-time rate.
Part-time to Full-time
When a part-time employee who has not already enrolled in HOOPP becomes employed in a full-time position, they must join the Plan as of the date they become employed in a full-time position.
Full-time to Part-time
When a full-time employee who already joined HOOPP becomes employed in a part-time position, they can continue to be enrolled in HOOPP and to make contributions to build their pension benefit. The Plan also permits these employees to elect to stop making contributions, as follows:
We recommend that the member complete a Contributions Waiver (a Sample HOOPP Member Contribution Waiver is available from HOOPP Insight), keep a copy for your records. You do not need to submit a copy to HOOPP.
You must submit the employment and contribution status change in HOOPP Insight using the Member Basic Data data collection.
The member’s election to stop making HOOPP contributions is effective on the date their part-time position begins.
This option is based on the member’s change in employment status. If the member is employed at a part-time position by more than one employer and elects to stop making contributions, this election applies to all HOOPP employers where they are employed part-time and the member is expected to notify all of their part-time employers.
If they want to resume contributing while working part-time, the member can make this election anytime. Submit the contribution status change information to HOOPP in HOOPP Insight using a Member Basic Data data collection. Once the member restarts their contributions, they will not have the option to stop again.
Self-employed Healthcare Workers
Self-employed healthcare workers and family members of self-employed healthcare workers participating in the Plan are deemed to be full-time employees of their professional corporation and must begin making contributions as of the professional corporation participation date or the date the professional corporation’s participation agreement was amended to provide for the self-employed healthcare worker's participation.
Working with Another HOOPP Employer
Self-employed healthcare workers and family members of self-employed healthcare workers can participate in the Plan through either a professional corporation or another HOOPP employer (such as a hospital), but not both at the same time.
If they participate in both at different times during their career, each period of membership will be treated separately when their pension is determined. When they retire, these benefits will be combined to provide a single monthly lifetime pension.
Adding Additional Self-employed Healthcare Workers or Family Members to a Participating Professional Corporation
An amendment to the employer participation agreement with HOOPP is required if an existing professional corporation employer wishes to enrol additional self-employed healthcare workers or family member employees. To request this change, the employer must submit an updated Application to Become a Participating HOOPP Employer (Professional Corporation) form to HOOPP for approval, explaining the reason for the amendment (e.g., new healthcare owner or family member hired by the professional corporation wants to participate), providing the date the new member(s) would join HOOPP and providing information regarding the employee(s) including baseline earnings for the first year of membership. If multiple people are enrolling, additional pages can be requested.