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Administration October 6, 2023
Complaints Filed Against 5 Companies to Collect Money Owed to 2 Teamsters Pension Trust Funds
Lawyers for the plaintiff, a third-party administrator, alleged identical claims against each defendant.
Reported by Noah Zuss
Lawyers representing a third-party administrator filed complaints against five companies this week, alleging that each failed to follow collective bargaining agreements for pension beneficiaries from two Teamsters unions.
The separate cases were filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Washington on behalf of plaintiff Northwest Administrators Inc., the authorized administrator and delegate of the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust Fund and the Pacific Coast Benefits Trust Fund, the court docket shows.
The defendant companies are enterprise information management firm Iron Mountain Inc; construction company Kiewit Infrastructure West Co.; Republic Parking Northwest LLC; chemicals manufacturer Venator Americas LLC; and Welch Foods Inc.
Northwest Administrators alleges that the defendants are responsible for violating contracts between an employer and a union.
The third-party administrator filed complaints to collect funds due the trust from Iron Mountain and Welch Foods; a complaint to collect trust funds following an audit against Venator Americas; and complaints to force audits against Kiewit Infrastructure and Republic Parking, the filings show.
The TPA conducted an audit of the payroll records of defendant Venator Americas LLC for the period from January 1, 2018, through June 30, 2022, and found that the company did not fully report hours worked and underpaid trust contributions by more than $53,000, the complaint states.
Venator Americas, the lawyers argue, is further obligated to pay to the trust liquidated damages in the amount of $10,757.87 for the period, plus accrued interest and all attorney fees and costs incurred by the plaintiff.
Defendant Iron Mountain submitted payment reports for the period April 1, 2021, through February 28, 2023, to the Teamsters pension fund but failed to pay contributions for those months, resulting in $2,346.12 in damages and additional accrued interest and attorney fees and costs, according to the complaint.
Beginning June 1, defendant Welch Foods is alleged by the TPA of failing to promptly report for and pay to the trust all amounts due, and according to the Northwest Administrators attorneys, only Welch’s records contain the detailed information necessary to make an accurate determination of the extent of the unpaid obligations to the trust.
In the complaint against Welch’s, Northwest Administrators attorneys requested that the court compel Welch’s to render a monthly accounting to the TPA’s attorneys of Welch’s employees who are members of the bargaining unit represented by the union, together with the total monthly hours for the which the company paid each of them, for the period from June 1 to the date of the filing,
Each complaint argues alleged contract breach by the employers. Each of the pension plans are also regulated by the Taft-Hartley Act, the complaints show.
Taft-Hartley plans, or multiemployer plans, are defined benefit pension plans that are collectively bargained and managed for more than one employer within the same industry.
The complaint seeking an audit, against Kiewit Construction, alleges that “despite notification to the Defendant of the Trustees’ desire to conduct an audit for the period January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2021,” the company has not given the TPA access to records for that period and has “refused to make all of the requested records available for the thorough examination the Trustees deem necessary and advisable to the proper administration of the Trust,” the complaint states.
The complaint against Republic Parking alleges the same claims but for the period January 1, 2018, through May 31, 2021.
In the 2022 plan year, the latest data available, the Form 5500 filing to the Department of Labor showed that the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Plan held more than $53 billion in retirement assets for 619,203 participants. In the 2021 plan year, the latest data available, the Pacific Coast Benefits Trust Fund held more than $689 million in assets for 155,864 participants.
Northwest Administrators is represented by attorneys with Seattle-based law firm Reid, Ballew, Leahy & Holland LLP. Neither firm representatives nor their attorneys responded to requests for comment.
Representative for the employers also did not return requests for comment.
