Multi-Employer Benefit Plan Council of Canada
MEPs provide continuous benefits coverage to workers as they change employment from one contributing employer to another. This continuous coverage is essential for workers in mobile, seasonal industries like construction and entertainment. Additionally, most plans allow for the accumulation of revenues and "pay-direct" schemes to protect workers and their dependents during periods of unemployment ñ which is not uncommon in many of the industries represented.
A worker may be employed by a particular employer for only a day, a week, a month or a few months, to work on a specific project, and then move on to work on another contributing employer's project. Between jobs, he or she might be off work for a day, a week, a month or longer. A worker may work for several different employers over his or her working life, with periods of unemployment between jobs.
Without a central plan covering all of his or her work for multiple employers, workers could not have ready access to the many necessary benefits provided by MEPs. Frequent changes in employment would make coverage by one employer impossible. Since most employers are small they are incapable of maintain a separate benefit plan.