Benefits May 23, 2006

MA Officials Pay $1.2M in Age Discrimination Case

May 23, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has paid out $1.26 million to 15 plaintiffs as part of a long-running battle over allegations that the state illegally denied older workers the right to apply for accidental disability retirements.
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An announcement from the USEqual Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said that as a result of its lawsuit against state officials, the state, local and municipal employees will also get an additional $165,176 every year – raising the state’s ultimate payout to several million dollars.

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The EEOC said Tuesday’s announcement ends years of litigation in which the EEOC sued Massachusetts repeatedly for its retirement system’s violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The EEOC said the Commonwealth amended its retirement statute to drop out provisions found to be discriminatory in 2000.

The original settlement, which extended back to October 16, 1992, provided accidental disability retirement pensions to all those otherwise eligible who were either denied, or discouraged from applying for these pensions solely because their ages exceeded Massachusetts’s maximum age limitations.

Benefits May 22, 2006

Report: Reprimanded Boston Health Exec Admits to More Sex Harassment

May 22, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The president of a Boston-based health care provider has admitted to sexually harassing more women than in the four cases for which he was reprimanded last week.
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An attorney for the Boston Archdiocese told the Boston Globe that not only has Dr. Robert Haddad, the Caritas Christi Health Care system president, admitted to more instances of sexual harassment, but witnesses have also indicated there were more victims.

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David Mandel, an employment law specialist working for the archdiocese, told the Globe that the archdiocese has kicked off a further probe of Haddad following reports that he ”leered and winked” at one of the four victims on May 10, after the archdiocesan investigation was all but concluded.

If the inquiry finds that the reports were accurate, the Caritas board of governors that agreed to the ”stern reprimand” would have to consider possible further sanctions against Haddad, Mandel told the newspaper.

According to Mandel, the board was told Thursday that there were more than the four women involved before they endorsed Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s recommendation that Haddad be reprimanded and receive instruction in sexual harassment guidelines.

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