Note 17. Employee Benefits Plan

Retirement plans

The Company offers a 401(k) plan, which covers substantially all employees in the U.S., with the exception of certain union employees. Participating employees may elect to contribute, on a tax-deferred basis, a portion of their compensation, in accordance with Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Company generally provides some form of a matching contribution for most employees in the U.S. Retirement plan contributions for the years ended  October 31, 2021 and  October 31, 2020 were $0.9 million, $1.0 million, respectively.

Camfaud operates a Small Self-Administered Scheme (“SSAS”), which is the equivalent of a U.S. defined contribution pension plan. The assets of the plan are held separately from those of Camfaud in an independently administered fund. Contributions by Camfaud to the SSAS amounted to $0.3 million for the years ended October 31, 2021 and October 31, 2020, respectively.

Multiemployer plans

Our U.S. Concrete Pumping segment contributes to a number of multiemployer defined benefit pension plans under the terms of collective-bargaining agreements (CBAs) that cover its union-represented employees. The risks of participating in these multiemployer plans are different from single-employer plans in the following aspects: (a) Assets contributed to the multiemployer plan by one employer may be used to provide benefits to employees of other participating employers; (b) If a participating employer stops contributing to the plan, the unfunded obligations of the plan may be borne by the remaining participating employers; and (c) If we choose to stop participating in some of its multiemployer plans, we may be required to pay those plans an amount based on the underfunded status of the plan, referred to as a withdrawal liability. We have no intention of stopping our participation in any multiemployer plan.

The following is a summary of our contributions to each multiemployer pension plan for the years ended October 31, 2021 and 2020:

No plan was determined to be individually significant. There have been no significant changes that affect the comparability of the contributions. The Company reviews the funded status of each multiemployer defined benefit pension plan at each reporting period to monitor the certified zone status for each of the multiemployer defined benefit pension plans. The zone status for the multiemployer defined benefit pension plan for Oregon was Green (greater than 80 percent funded) and for California and Washington, it was Yellow (less than 80 percent funded but greater than 65 percent funded). The funding status for the Oregon and Washington multiemployer defined benefit pension plans is at January 1, 2020 and for the California multiemployer defined benefit pension plan is at July 1, 2020.

Government regulations impose certain requirements relative to multiemployer plans. In the event of plan termination or employer withdrawal, an employer may be liable for a portion of the plan’s unfunded vested benefits. We have not received information from the plans’ administrators to determine its share of unfunded vested benefits. We do not anticipate withdrawal from the plans, nor are we aware of any expected plan terminations.

If the construction industry exception applies, then it would delay the imposition of a withdrawal liability. The “construction industry” exception generally delays the imposition of withdrawal liability in connection with an employer’s withdrawal from a “construction industry” multiemployer plan unless and until that employer resumes covered operations in the relevant geographic region without a corresponding resumption of contributions to the multiemployer plan. The Company has no intention of withdrawing, in either a complete or partial withdrawal, from any of the multiemployer plans to which the Company currently contributes; however, it has been assessed a withdrawal liability in the past.