Compliance July 3, 2006

Federal Judge Rejects HIV Discrimination Case

July 3,2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A federal judge threw out a lawsuit of a woman who claimed a Wisconsin restaurant did not hire her because she was HIV positive.
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US District Judge Barbara Crabb said that Korrin Krause Stewart, 21, did not prove a key requirement in a disability suit, which requires that a disability limit major life activity, the Wausau Daily Herald reported. The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) says that impaired is not the same as disabled, unless Stewart can show being HIV positive limits her ability to eat, breathe, reproduce or perform other major life activity.

Crabb wrote that no reasonable jury would have found Stewart – who was born with the virus – to be disabled under the ADA definition, the newspaper reported.

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Committee (EEOC) took on the suit against the restaurant in 2005 and charged that it ignored a job application for 19-year-old Stewart – then Korrin Krause (See Second Discrimination Suit For HIV Positive Teen ). After not hearing back from the restaurant about the status of her application for some time, Stewart claimed she returned to the Log Cabin Restaurant to update her resume, only to find the words “HIV positive” written on her application.

According to the Herald, this is the second such lawsuit for Stewart. In 2002, she received a $90,000 settlement in a lawsuit against a grocery store, Quality Foods IGA.  After working one day at the grocery store, Krause, then 16, was fired after a manager called her family to verify her HIV-positive status.

Administration July 2, 2006

MA PRIM Pulls Back $315M from Fidelity Equity Management

February 7, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Trustees of Massachusetts' $40.2-billion state pension fund have given final approval to an emergency move made last year to fire Fidelity Investments as one of the fund's stock pickers.
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According to a Reuters news report, the Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) board’s latest decision affirms the one made in December 2005 to pull back the $315 million the world’s biggest mutual fund firm had invested in domestic large cap equities for the fund. The reason: fund manager Steven Kaye who was in charge of the retirees’ account had left his post.

Kaye managed pension money for the Massachusetts fund and Fidelity’s $31 billion Growth & Income fund. He is currently on sabbatical from the firm, Fidelity spokeswoman Anne Crowley told Reuters.

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While the pension fund had in previous years warned that it might review its relationship with Fidelity because of Kaye’s performance and an investigation into a gifts scandal, this decision was based only on the personnel change, Michael Travaglini, executive director of the PRIM board told Reuters (See  MA Could Sack Fidelity for Subpar Performance ).  Even with the state’s decision, Fidelity still manages $365 million in high yield bonds for the pension fund, Travaglini said.

But Fidelity may see the pension fund pull away more money later this year when it reduces its investment in high-yield bonds to 5% from 9%, Travaglini said.

Many pension funds are required to review allocations when significant changes are made to the lineup of their investment professionals, and so the Massachusetts fund had to act in December before its next regularly scheduled meeting at which manager changes are traditionally discussed and approved, according to the news report.

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