Compliance January 22, 2016

Restaurant Manager Accused of Rejecting “Too Old” Job Candidates

The EEOC has filed an age bias suit against a Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen.
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Coatesville Chicken, LLC, doing business as Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, will pay $36,000 and provide significant equitable relief to settle a federal age discrimination lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced.

According to the suit, the restaurant engaged in age discrimination when it refused to hire military veteran Lula Wright-Hill, then 54, Leroy Keasley, then 40, and Kevin Bryant, then 58 and also a veteran, for various positions. Each completed an application that required them to reveal their dates of birth. In addition, the EEOC alleged that during Wright-Hill’s and Keasley’s interviews, the general manager asked them how old they were and told them that they were “too old” to work for the restaurant.

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“How sad that this employer disadvantaged three applicants, including two military veterans, because of their age,” says EEOC Philadelphia District Director Spencer H. Lewis, Jr. “EEOC is here to fight for Americans’ rights to be free from age discrimination.”

In addition to the $36,000 in monetary relief, which represents full back pay with liquidated damages, to Wright-Hill, Keasley and Bryant, the consent decree settling the suit enjoins Coatesville Chicken from engaging in age discrimination or retaliation in the future. Pursuant to the decree, the restaurant has revised its job application to no longer require applicants to state their age or date of birth. Coatesville Chicken will implement and disseminate an anti-discrimination policy and provide training on federal anti-discrimination laws to all managers and employees who receive job applications.

EEOC Philadelphia District Office Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence adds, “We appreciate that Coatesville Chicken worked with us to resolve the matter without engaging in protracted litigation.”
Products January 21, 2016

Investment Product and Service Launches

Vanguard reopens money market fund ahead of SEC changes; Wells Fargo offers enhanced pension metrics reporting.
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 Vanguard has reopened the Vanguard Treasury Money Market Fund to all investors.

The firm closed the $9.1 billion fund in January 2009 to “protect existing clients from high levels of cash flow that could potentially dilute the fund’s yield.” Market conditions have since improved, the firm says, and the fund’s board determined that it would be in the best interests of shareholders to reopen the fund.

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Vanguard investors will now have access to two low-cost U.S. government money market funds, the firm explains, after it announced in June that it was reopening its $4.8 billion Federal Money Market Fund to all investors.

The Treasury Money Market Fund invests primarily in U.S. Treasuries, while the Federal Money Market Fund invests primarily in U.S. agency debt. As U.S. government money market funds, both funds provide investors with a stable $1 net asset value (NAV). Moreover, they will not be subject to new liquidity fee or redemption gate requirements under rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2014 (taking effect later this year). 

NEXT: Wells Fargo offers enhanced pension metrics reporting

Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust is offering enhanced reporting capabilities that will connect its defined benefit discretionary asset management clients to a new pension metrics system, offering daily portfolio monitoring and management of a pension plan’s dynamic glide path.

This will give investment managers the opportunity to help handle portfolio shifts on a daily basis when certain financial market trigger dynamics are met.

Traditionally, providers generate a paper-bound asset and liability study for clients as the key outcome of asset/liability analysis process. The pension metrics system will give Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust the flexibility to offer clients live modeling updates by changing assumptions and other factors, generating a living document that matches today’s volatile investment climate.

“The ability to know the funded status of our clients’ plans on a daily basis will be ever more important as we move into a rising interest rate environment,” says Tom Hooley, managing director of Institutional Asset Advisors at Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement and Trust. “As rates rise, we will be able to immediately see the impact on our clients’ plans and make the necessary change to investment strategies.”

Portfolio managers will be able to walk sponsors through a dashboard of assets, liabilities, funded status and potential risk measures, as well as model interest rate and portfolio sensitivities and provide what-if scenario analysis of portfolio changes. Multi-year monitoring and forecasting trends and variation in funded status, accounting expense, contributions and balance sheet impact will also be part of the enhanced pension reporting.

Other key benefits, according to Wells Fargo, include:

  • Increased efficiency and productivity, freeing up more time for consultation;
  • On-demand desktop analysis, allowing for more  sophisticated investment discussions with clients;
  • Greater volume of data, leading to more informed decisions and better results; and
  • Timely advantages in light of interest rate volatility environment expected in future quarters.

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