In Waldner v. Natixis Investment Managers LP et al., filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, a federal judge refused to grant the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case in December of 2021. Plaintiff plan participants filed the lawsuit as a proposed class action alleging Natixis Investment Managers LP (“Natixis”), a French corporate and investment bank, of violating ERISA and federal Read More
Texas CBD Retailers Sued in Class Action Over Alleged Unpaid Overtime
In Ross v. Sherman Hemp LLC et al., a case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, the operators of two CBD shops in Texas were sued in a proposed class action by a former sales associate who says the businesses illegally avoided paying overtime wages by sharing staff and paying them with separate paychecks. The shops are CBD USA Plus franchises. In a complaint filed as the new year Read More
5 Benefits Rulings From 2021 That Attorneys Should Know, Part 2
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA), is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry. The primary purpose of ERISA is to protect the individuals who participate in these plans. From the circuit courts to the Supreme Court, there was no shortage of cases involving employee health plans in 2021. For Read More
Court Approves $4.2 Million Settlement in Suit for Unpaid Overtime
In early January, a Pennsylvania federal judge approved a $4.2 million settlement between Pittsburgh-based grocery chain Giant Eagle and employees who were “team leaders" at its grocery stores and GetGo convenience stores in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Andrew Fitch et al. v. Giant Eagle Inc., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, team leaders made allegations of misclassification Read More
5 Key Benefits Rulings From 2021, Part 1
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA) is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established retirement and health plans in private industry. The primary purpose of ERISA is to protect the individuals who participate in these plans. From the U.S. Circuit Courts to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), there was no shortage of cases involving Read More
Workers’ Attorneys Receive $1Million Share of $4M Koch ERISA Settlement
A putative class of roughly 101,000 participants in multiple retirement plans for Koch employees, reached a $4 million settlement with Koch Industries Inc., Koch Business Solutions LP, and the Koch Benefits Administrative Committee (“Koch”), in July 2021.Almost six months later, in December 2021, federal judge in Georgia approved a $1 million award of attorney’s fees to lawyers from the law firms of Nichols Kaster Read More
Federal Judge in New York Skeptical of Amazon COVID Race Bias Claims
A New York federal judge seemed skeptical that a former Amazon worker could sufficiently show that he was fired for whistleblowing on allegedly discriminatory COVID-19 policies. U.S. District Judge Rachel P. Kovner said that the ex-employee's seemingly deficient pleadings and his workplace conduct could undermine his case. In Smalls et al. v. Amazon Inc., a 2021 case filed in the U.S. District Court for the Read More
DOL Releases Statistics on ERISA Benefit Plan Enforcement for (FY) 2021
The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), part of the Department of Labor (“DOL”), is an agency that enforces Title I of ERISA. At the end of 2021, EBSA released a fact sheet summarizing its fiscal year (FY) 2021 enforcement statistics. In 2021, EBSA restored Over $2.4 billion to employee benefit plans, participants, and beneficiaries. The total monetary recoveries included $499.5 million in benefits Read More
Five Key Government Contracting Policies Of 2021
Government contractors were affected by many policy changes in 2021. A vaccine mandate that applies to nearly every federal contractor employee across the country, and a planned False Claims Act crackdown on cybersecurity, are among the most impactful changes. Here is a look at five areas of government contracting policy that agencies have changed or scrutinized in the latter half of 2021. Broad Vaccine Read More
IRS Issues Notice Regarding 2021 Required Amendments List for Individually Designed Qualified and Section 403(b) Plans
The Required Amendments List (the “List” or “RAL”) is an annual list of changes in retirement plan qualification requirements (see Revenue Procedure 2016-37). It also establishes amendment deadlines for individually designed plans. Generally, the Required Amendments List will include an item after the issuance of any guidance for the item, including any model amendment. However, the IRS has the discretion to Read More
