Benefits June 28, 2006

Jury Awards $1.7M to Victim of 'Motivational' Spanking

June 28, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A jury in Fresno, California awarded $1.7 million to an Alarm One Inc. employee who sued for sexual harassment and battery after several workplace spanking incidents.
Reported by

HR.BLR.com reports that Janet Orlando said she was spanked with a yard sign on three separate occasions in front of jeering coworkers.

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The spankings were part of motivational practices at the company’s Fresno office, HR.BLR.com said. The company would have sales teams compete with the winners poking fun at the losers, according to the news report. Tactics included throwing pies at the losers, feeding them baby food, making them wear diapers and spanking them with a competitor’s yard sign (See Workplace Spanking Victim Asks for $1.2M Jury Verdict ).

Orlando claimed that during the spankings, the sales force would heckle her with comments such as “Bend over, baby,” and “You’ve been a bad girl.”

The company said Orlando was a willing participant during the motivational meetings and never complained about being spanked, according to the news report. It also claimed Orlando abruptly quit her job, not because of the spankings, but because she was upset about being passed over for promotion.

The jury’s award includes $500,000 in compensatory damages and $1.2 million in punitive damages.

Compliance June 27, 2006

DoL Seeks Restoration for ESOP Plan of SC Company

June 27, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Department of Labor (DoL) has brought a lawsuit against Hagemeyer North America Inc. in South Carolina, claiming participants suffered more than $1 million in losses when the company's employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) purchased shares at inflated prices.
Reported by

According to the DoL announcement, the US District Court for the District of South Carolina has combined its suit with a private suit brought by employees of Cameron & Barkley Company, now part of Hagemeyer.

The combined suit alleges that Hagemeyer North America Inc., GreatBanc Trust Company  and members of the plan’s administrative and advisory committees violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by mismanaging two ESOPs sponsored by the Cameron & Barkley and Cambar Software Inc.

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The alleged violations to the ESOP occurred when Cameron & Barkley merged with Hagemeyer in 2000, the announcement said. Cambar Software was not part of the merger, and its employees’ ESOP accounts were spun off into a new ESOP.

The DoL is seeking a court order requiring the defendants to restore to the plan all losses with interest, return any illegal profits received by them and undo any transactions prohibited by federal benefits law. The suit also asks that there be an accounting of the escrow monies and appropriate allocation of funds with interest to the Cameron & Barkley and Cambar Software ESOPs.

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