Form BA-6 , Certificate of Service Months and Compensation, is issued annually. This form is the employee's record of creditable service and compensation reported by all covered employers for his or her record, including creditable sick pay. Form BA-6 is prepared for each employee who received creditable compensation, including sick pay compensation, in the preceding calendar year and where such compensation was timely and correctly reported to the RRB.

Distribution of Form BA-6

Forms BA-6 may be forwarded to the reporting employer for delivery to the employee if:

• there is no address or an incomplete address on record for the employee so the form cannot be mailed, or
• Form BA-6 is mailed but is subsequently returned to the RRB as undeliverable by the Postal Service.

Forms BA-6 are sent to the sick pay employer or payor for distribution to the employee in the above situations only if the sick pay employer is the only employer reporting compensation for the year. Employers should distribute Forms BA-6 as soon as possible and not later than 30 days after receipt. Any certificates which cannot be distributed in 30 days must be returned to the Chief of Compensation and Certification.

Establishing Records for New Hires

Records for newly hired railroad employees are established from the annual reports of service and compensation filed by the rail and labor employers. Therefore, it is important that the social security numbers (SSN) in the reports are correct. Logically, a sick pay report should not be the first report for an employee. If a sick pay report does establish an new record, it may be because the sick pay was reported with an incorrect social security number or name. A current employee will appear to be a new hire if the employee were reported under an incorrect SSN. It is only upon investigation with the Social Security Administration (SSA), information from the employee, and reconciliation with the employer via Form GL-24, that the error is detected and corrected. A description of Form GL-24 is at the end of Chapter 9.