Compliance May 23, 2006

Senate Confirmation of PBGC Director Proposed

May 23, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - US Senators Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Montana) have introduced legislation that would require Senate confirmation of the executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC).
Reported by

A Finance Committee news release said that the legislation would require approval of the PBGC head by both the Finance Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.   Currently, the executive director is appointed by the Secretary of Labor.

“The future of defined-benefit pension plans is far from certain. The Finance Committee, the HELP Committee, and indeed the entire Senate have spent considerable time working to preserve the pensions of millions of workers, as well as to contain the growing deficit of the PBGC,” said Baucus, in the release. “The PBGC is the only entity standing between some American workers and financial ruin in retirement. The executive director’s position is just too important not to be subject to Senate oversight.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PLANSPONSOR newsletters to keep up on the latest retirement plan benefits news.

Current PBGC executive director, Bradley Belt, has tendered his resignation as of May 31 (See Head of PBGC Resigns ).   Burdens on the agency have increased in the past two years, mostly due to airline bankruptcies and the resulting termination of pension plans.   The PBGC reported a deficit of $22.8 million as of September 30, 2005 (See PBGC Answers Questions on Reported Deficit).

The news release said Grassley and Baucus hope to attach their proposal to the larger pension reform bill now being worked on by the House and Senate (See Report: Memorial Day Now Current Pension Reform Deadline ).

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.
Reported by

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.

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

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.

«