Unionized employers participating in an underfunded multiemployer pension plan face significant financial exposure when withdrawing (completely or partially) from the plan.  The cost (called “withdrawal liability”) is generally based on the employer’s pro rata share of the pension plan’s unfunded vested benefits and typically amounts to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.  This withdrawal

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 industry employers. More…

The recently published final regulation implementing last year’s massive multiemployer pension plan bailout contains a very thin silver lining, but overall, more bad news for already overburdened employers.

Last year, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued its interim final rule on the process for eligible troubled Multiemployer Pension Plans (MEPPs) to apply for and

It’s no secret that the statutory deck under ERISA is stacked heavily in favor of multiemployer pension plans (MEPPs) and against employers contributing to (or withdrawing from) Taft-Hartley trust funds. For example, an employer who receives a demand to pay its alleged allocable share of a multiemployer pension plan’s unfunded vested benefits (Withdrawal Liability) will

The Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s (ERISA) progeny, can create significant unexpected liabilities for companies that have agreed to collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) requiring participation in and contributions to multiemployer-defined benefit pension funds (often referred to as Taft-Hartley Funds). However, a special exemption is available to employers in

The use of the “Segal Blend” to calculate a company’s withdrawal liability when it withdrew from a multiemployer pension plan violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act (MPPAA), because it was not the actuary’s best estimate, the federal appeals court in Cincinnati has held in

An employer’s permanent cessation of contributions to a multiemployer pension plan can trigger withdrawal liability. This liability may reach affiliated trades or businesses with sufficient common ownership to be under “common control” with the employer. The affiliates would be jointly and severally liable for withdrawal liability incurred and unpaid by the withdrawing affiliate.

Courts often

In the clamor that surrounded the current administration’s adoption of the American Rescue Act of 2021 (ARPA), quietly tucked in as Subtitle H is the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 (Butch Lewis). Butch Lewis has been unsuccessfully bouncing around Congress since 2019. While Butch Lewis is long on rhetoric, at this

I – Overview of the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act

The much-heralded Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act of 2021 (the “Butch Lewis Act of 2021”) is closer to becoming a reality as part of the COVID-19 relief bill, which is set for a vote in the House of Representatives on February

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 largest contingent liability may stem from their allocable share of unfunded vested benefits or withdrawal liability.  More info…