Rule 324 — Employer not to have interest in fund moneys.
The rule keeps the employer away from the fund's money. No money belonging to the fund shall be receivable by the employer under any circumstances, nor shall the employer have any lien or charge on the fund.
The fund holds money for the employees, and an employer that could take it back, or secure its own borrowing against it, would leave the employees with a claim on assets that are not truly theirs. The rule severs the connection completely: no receipt of the money in any circumstances, and no security interest of any kind over the fund.
The prohibition has two limbs and they cover different things. The first stops money belonging to the fund from being receivable by the employer at all, and the words "under any circumstances" leave no room for a temporary or repayable transfer. The second stops the employer from having any lien or charge on the fund, so the fund cannot be used as security even where no money moves. Both are absolute in their terms; the rule states no exception and provides for no consent that would allow one.
An employer facing a cash shortage proposes that the fund lend it money against a charge on the fund's investments, to be repaid with interest. Both halves of the arrangement are barred: the money belonging to the fund is not receivable by the employer under any circumstances, and the employer may not have a lien or charge on the fund.
You meet it in the fund's trust deed and in the trustees' handling of its investments and bank accounts, where any dealing that puts fund money or fund assets at the employer's disposal has to be refused.
No money belonging to the fund shall be receivable by the employer under any circumstances nor shall the employer have any lien or charge on the fund.