Retired AMO members under age 65 can now qualify for "return to work" under AMO covered employment without a hold on their monthly benefits from the AMO Pension Plan under a temporary amendment to the Plan's rules and regulations.

This emergency amendment was approved by the joint union-employer AMO Pension Plan Board of Trustees during the board's quarterly meeting on November 17.

The trustees' intent is to ease the impact on AMO of the industry-wide shortage of qualified licensed officers in the deep-sea and Great Lakes sectors. Qualified retirees fit for duty regardless of age would fill gap billets or provide overdue relief for active AMO members completing prolonged rotations.

The AMO officer shortage is most severe among 2nd and 3rd Assistant Engineers, but return to work under this temporary amendment would apply to 1st Assistant and Chief Engineers as well.

AMO also has occasional need for deep-sea and Great Lakes deck officers to fill jobs and to relieve other AMO members.

Until this amendment, AMO members were approved routinely for return to work when such employment did not block or displace active AMO members from available seagoing jobs, and pension benefits for such retirees under age 65 had been withheld during such re-employment. Retirees 65 and older continued to receive their monthly benefits under return to work.

The trustees' amendment does not interrupt receipt of monthly AMO Pension Plan benefits for any AMO retiree, regardless of age. This amendment will be in place until April 2023, when it will be reviewed for possible extension.