Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Jan. 30, 2021

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Employee Benefit Plans

Employee Benefit Plans

We sponsor a defined contribution plan that provides retirement benefits to eligible employees who elect to participate (the “Dycom Plan”). Under the plan, participating employees may defer up to 75% of their base pre-tax eligible compensation up to the IRS limits. We contribute 30% of the first 5% of base eligible compensation that a participant contributes to the plan and may make discretionary matching contributions from time to time. Our contributions were $4.0 million, $4.1 million, and $3.5 million related to fiscal 2021, fiscal 2020, and fiscal 2019, respectively.

Certain of the Company’s subsidiaries contribute amounts to multiemployer defined benefit pension plans under the terms of collective bargaining agreements (“CBA”) that cover employees represented by unions. Contributions are generally based on

fixed amounts per hour per employee for employees covered by the plan. Participating in a multiemployer plan entails risks different from single-employer plans in the following aspects:

•assets contributed to the multiemployer plan by one employer may be used to provide benefits to employees of other participating employers;

•if a participating employer stops contributing to the plan, the unfunded obligations of the plan may be allocated to the remaining participating employers; and

•if the Company stops participating in the multiemployer plan, the Company may be required to pay the plan an amount based on the underfunded status of the plan. This payment is referred to as a withdrawal liability.

The information available to us about the multiemployer plans in which we participate is generally dated due to the nature of the reporting cycle of multiemployer plans and legal requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act. Based upon the most recently available annual reports, our contribution to each of the plans was less than 5% of each plan’s total contributions. All plans are presented in the aggregate in the following table (dollars in thousands):

	Company Contributions						Expiration Date of CBA
	Fiscal Year Ended		Fiscal Year Ended		Fiscal Year Ended
Fund	2021		2020		2019
All Plans	$	280	$	362	$	726	Various

During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016, one of the Company’s subsidiaries ceased operations. This subsidiary contributed to a multiemployer pension plan, the Pension, Hospitalization and Benefit Plan of the Electrical Industry - Pension Trust Fund (the “Plan”). In October 2016, the Plan demanded payment for a claimed withdrawal liability of approximately $13.0 million. In December 2016, the subsidiary submitted a formal request to the Plan seeking review of the Plan’s withdrawal liability determination. The subsidiary disputes the claim that it is required to make payment of a withdrawal liability as demanded by the Plan as it believes that a statutory exemption under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) applies to its activities. The Plan has taken the position that the work at issue does not qualify for that statutory exemption. The subsidiary has submitted this dispute to arbitration, as required by ERISA. There can be no assurance that the Company’s subsidiary will be successful in asserting the statutory exemption as a defense in the arbitration proceeding. As required by ERISA, in November 2016, this subsidiary began making payments of a withdrawal liability to the Plan in the amount of approximately $0.1 million per month. If the subsidiary prevails in disputing the withdrawal liability, all such payments are expected to be refunded. Given the early stage of this action, it is not possible to estimate a range of loss that could result from either an adverse judgment or a settlement of this matter.