Compliance May 27, 2004

DoL Sues Company For Failure to Restore 401(k) Contributions

May 27, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) has filed a lawsuit against Vacuum Research Corporation after the company allegedly failed to restore employee contributions to the company's 401(k) plan.
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>The suit, filed in the federal district court in Pittsburgh, alleges that the company and its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) John Hartnett violated provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) when the company failed to pay $32,378 to the plan for overdue contributions owed for 1998 to 2001.   Additionally in the suit, Chao v. Hartnett , the DoL alleges that the defendants failed to remit to the plan any employee contributions from 2002 to the present.  

>The suit seeks to require the defendants to restore all losses to the plan with interest and permanently bar Hartnett from serving as a fiduciary to any employee benefit plan governed by ERISA.   In addition, the suit seeks to appoint an independent fiduciary to manage the plan.

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At the time of the improper act, Hartnett was a plan trustee for the Vacuum Research plan.   The plan had 18 participants and $268,369 in assets as of December 2000.

Benefits May 26, 2004

More Workers Leave Vacation Days Behind

May 26, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Three out of 10 employed adults are not using all of their vacation time and 32% find it difficult to fully separate themselves from the office - resorting to "working" vacations checking email and voicemail.
Reported by

Those missed vacation days add up. Across the country, workers that receive annual vacation are handing back a total of 415 million vacation days to their employers. On average, every employed American misses out on three days of vacation, up 50% from the two days they each forfeited in 2003, according to a survey by Expedia.com (which, of course, offers an online service that helps individuals use those vacation days).

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Yet workers responded positively to taking the necessary R&R to recharge the batteries. Sixty-five percent of the people polled by Expedia say they come back feeling rested, rejuvenated, and reconnected with family and friends after vacation.

Bucking the national trend though are workers in the Midwest. Expedia’s found only 46% of Midwesterns work more than 40 hour per week, compared to the 51% national average. Additionally, only 24% of the workers in the nation’s heartland leave vacation time on the table, compared to 30 percent nationally.

On the other end of the scale, 43% of workers in the West say they would take less vacation than they are given due to “too much work.” Further, this group leaves behind the most unused vacation (27% give up more than a week each year) and works the longest hours (56% work more than 40 hours a week).

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