Compliance April 12, 2010

Court Finds Early Retirement Incentive Discriminatory

April 12, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – A federal court judge has found the Minnesota Department of Corrections violated federal age discrimination law by maintaining an early retirement incentive plan that offered different health and dental benefits for people under and over age 55.
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U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson held that the early retirement incentives are “facially discriminatory,” and as such violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, adding that an early retirement incentive plan cannot condition its benefits based solely on age, according to Minnesota’s Pioneer Press. Under the incentive plans, an employee who retired at age 55 would get employer contributions for health and dental insurance until age 65, but an employee who retired after age 55 would get no such employer contributions toward health and dental coverage, the news report said.   

The judge ordered that employees and former employees are entitled to damages in the amount of health and dental insurance premiums that the Department of Corrections would have paid if the illegal early retirement plan had not existed from 2001 to the present.   

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the lawsuit after a former corrections department employee filed a charge with the agency. Six unions are also named as nominal defendants in the case.   

According to the news report, the Department of Corrections had argued in a motion for summary judgment that the EEOC could not show the department intended to discriminate, which, it said, is required in order to prove age discrimination in pension-related benefits under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Products April 12, 2010

Proskauer Launches Health Care Reform Initiative

April 12, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Global law firm Proskauer has announced the formal deployment of its Health Care Reform Initiative, with the primary goal of providing legal counsel to clients and friends of the firm, as well as to continually monitor, analyze, and disseminate information on new developments as they arise.
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According to a press release, the cornerstone of Proskauer’s strategy is the formation of the Health Care Reform Task Force, which brings together more than a dozen members of the firm’s Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation & ERISA Litigation Practice Center; Health Care Department; Labor & Employment Law Department; and Tax Department. Through this focused effort, Proskauer will provide information, analysis, and guidance in order to enable clients and friends of the firm to make the most well-informed, strategic decisions for their companies and employees.  

The initiative also includes the creation of an internal Health Care Reform Resource Center with relevant guidance, analysis, and insight from across the firm; and sponsorship of a Health Care Reform Briefing Series consisting of Webinars, seminars, and periodic client alerts targeted to different market segments.

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“Clearly, individuals and companies throughout the nation – from health care industry players to small businesses and major corporations – will be facing significant new challenges, not to mention considerable costs, regarding a host of legal issues and potential disputes emerging from this law. Since some of the provisions become effective immediately or within a few months, companies need to take action now,” said Rory Judd Albert, co-chair of Proskauer’s Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation & ERISA Litigation Practice Center, in the press release.  

More about Proskauer is at http://www.proskauer.com.

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