Products March 2, 2007

IBM, Mercer Partners in HR Services Deal with American Airlines

March 2, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Computer services giant IBM and Mercer HR Services are partnering to deliver a variety of Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) services to American Airlines.
Reported by

The 7 1/2-year, $217 million contract with the air carrier announced Friday will allow American to transform and manage many of its human resources functions, according to a news release announcing the deal. Mercer’s share of the contract is about 40%.

With the agreement in place, American will be able to use IBM’s suite of automated services and Mercer’s administrative and consulting offerings in delivering services to its 88,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

The news release said as part of the agreement, IBM will provide American support for standardized human resources processes including training, recruitment and staffing and HR-related information technology and call center support.

Further, Mercer will deliver health and benefit, pension plan and compensation administration, in addition to health and benefit and employee communication consulting services.


“Through our agreement with IBM, we’re acquiring state-of-the-art tools and processes that will enhance our employees’ access to and use of HR services,” said Jeff Brundage, Senior Vice President-Human Resources, American Airlines, in the announcement. “Moving the transactional work to IBM allows us to focus our energies and resources on our strategic business imperatives.”

Benefits March 1, 2007

Micron Settles Discrimination Charges

March 1, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Micron Technology, a Boise, Idaho manufacturer of semiconductors, has agreed to a $60,000 settlement in a workplace discrimination case involving an ex-employee who claimed he was mistreated because he was a racial minority and was deaf.
Reported by

According to a news report in the Deseret Morning News, Micron agreed to the payment to Jose Artalejo and to provide him a letter of regret and a positive letter of recommendation.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

Quoting a news release from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the news report said the agency alleged Artalejo’s co-workers made “a variety of offensive comments regarding (Artalejo’s) hearing impairments,” that some mocked him by pretending to communicate via sign language and that others referred to Artalejo using racial epithets. Artalejo was employed by Micron from 2000 through 2002.

The EEOC said Artalejo complained to Micron officials, who then “failed to take appropriate action to prevent or correct the conduct.” Further, the commission alleged that Micron denied Artalejo “reasonable accommodations for his hearing impairment and fired him because he complained of discrimination.”

Micron spokesman Daniel Francisco told the newspaper that the company “denies any illegal discrimination or harassment occurred in this case.”

«