Does a Pension Plan owe an employee all his contributions plus the employer's contributions on his behalf?

IF AN EMPLOYEE IS TERMINATED INVOLUNTARILY, DOES THE FUND OWE HIM FOR THE PORTION CONTRIBUTED BY THE EMPLOYER TO THE FUND ON HIS BEHALF AS WELL AS HIS CONTRIBUTIONS? DOES ERISA MANDATE THIS? FROM WHAT DATE? WHAT IS THE STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS?

It depends upon the terms of the plan. Pensions are a special breed. ERISA protects anything contributed by you and you may be entitled to some or all of what the employer has contributed. However, pensions do not work like 401(k) plans. Likewise the vesting rules are part of the Internal Revenue Code and not ERISA. The rules for vesting can be as long as 10 years in some cases though that type of cliff vesting as it is called has become rare. More common is a minimum of five years of employment for pension vesting.

Likewise, if the plan is not qualified under the Internal Revenue Code, then the employer receives no tax deduction until paid, but is free to vest anyway they like.

Also, pensions I believe can restrict access to the funds until retirement. You could receive it as a monthly check when you retire. You could also receive now the present value of the future benefits. It isn't likely to be much.

If you are 30 and entitled to lifetime benefits at age 65 at a rate of $100 per month, you are likely entitled to only $1075 today. Involuntary or voluntary does not matter, unless you had died or were disabled. Pension benefits only become valuable near retirement.

ERISA protects money you have paid in, the IRS code probably protects some or all of the employer contribution, but that protection does not necessarily mean you can access the funds before retirement. Likewise, if you are married, you may be restricted from accessing the funds since pensions protect both spouses income for life. Congress does permit spouses over 35 to waive their rights to the money. It isn't binding on spouses under 35.

The answer is in your pension plan document. It is the binding contract with participants and the plan trustee. The Department of Labor people are nice and quite helpful, but they won't be able to help until you are sure they are breaking the rules. It is unlikely that an employer would do that as the sanctions are high. Read the document, it is a legal document but it is reasonably straight forward. Also, HR should have provided you with all of this information at the exit process.

Depends on the type of pension plan. if it has vesting, then no unless the the employee was vested, then yes, i believe so. Once it is matched it belongs to the employee. If you have access to BNA look it up there... otherwise you might have some luck going to a CPA and asking them, going to the Department of labor website, or possibly even the IRS website and looking at the Internal Revenue Codes.

Employee contributions must be returned, but not necessarily the employer's matching, based on Vesting.