Last Friday, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court’s decision upholding an arbitration award requiring an employer to pay more than $2.3 million in...more
An employer can contest a withdrawal liability assessment and ultimately prevail. That is the moral of Bulk Transport Corp. v. Teamsters Union No. 142 Pension Fund, No. 23-1563 (7th Cir. Mar. 22, 2024). Withdrawal...more
A recent decision from the Southern District of New York reveals that courts may be inclined in some withdrawal liability cases to narrowly apply the building and construction industry exemption based on the nature and...more
Withdrawal liability is a statutory obligation under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that any unionized employer may have to confront. Exemptions from liability include one applicable to construction...more
Under the provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) as modified by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 (“MPPAA”), an employer who withdraws from a multiemployer pension plan is...more
Approximately a quarter of the workforce covered by a traditional pension plan is in a multiemployer plan, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many manufacturers that participate in such plans are unaware their...more
On November 20, Republican Senators Charles Grassley and Lamar Alexander – chairmen of the committees with jurisdiction over pensions – jointly released the Multiemployer Pension Recapitalization and Reformation Plan (the...more
In a decision handed down by the Seventh Circuit on June 24, 2016, the court warned that a lack of familiarity with the concept of withdrawal liability cannot be used by a buyer of business assets as an excuse to avoid...more
On September 25, the Central States Pension Fund (one of the largest multiemployer/union pension funds in the country) submitted to the U.S. Department of Treasury a proposed “rescue plan,” which would allow the fund to...more
The Ninth Circuit, in Resilient Floor Covering Pension Trust Fund Board of Trustees v. Michael’s Floor Covering, Inc., Case No. 12-17675 (9th Cir. Sept. 11, 2015), joined the Seventh Circuit in finding that an asset...more
There are approximately 1,400 multiemployer pension plans and nearly 10 percent are projected to become insolvent within the next 15 years. Plan insolvency will trigger a termination and the assessment of withdrawal...more