PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Multiemployer Plans
On April 24, 2025, the Seventh Circuit upheld a Northern District of Illinois decision requiring a multiemployer pension plan to exclude the employers’ post-2014 rehabilitation plan contribution rate increases from the...more
In Central States, Se. & W. Areas Pension Fund v. Laguna Dairy, S. de R.L. de C.V., No. 23-3206 (3d Cir. 2025 Mar. 27, 2025), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (“Third Circuit”) reversed the district...more
We often hear, “OSHA can’t cite me because I didn’t employ the injured worker.” Unfortunately, this statement is often untrue. Under OSHA’s Multi-Employer Doctrine, if you are an employer on a worksite where other...more
Successor liability is a powerful collection tool for multiemployer plans under ERISA. It most commonly arises in the context of asset sales (although it is not limited to that situation)....more
On July 7, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama issued a ruling in Perfection Bakeries Inc. v. Retail Wholesale & Dep’t Store Int’l Union & Indus. Pension Fund, ordering Perfection Bakery, Inc....more
On April 25, 2023 the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published Field Assistance Bulletin 2023-01 (the “FAB”), which provides guidance to multiemployer pension plans that receive Special Financial Assistance (“SFA”) regarding the...more
2022 INFLATION-ADJUSTED PENALTIES ANNOUNCED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR - The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 directs the US Department of Labor (DOL) to make annual inflation adjustments to...more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (the PBGC) kicked off 2021 by releasing a final rule intended to streamline withdrawal liability calculations for multiemployer plans that are or were in “critical” or “endangered”...more
Editor's Overview - Happy New Year. We wrap-up 2019 with an article that reflects on significant developments in ERISA litigation during 2019, and takes a look at what's on the horizon for 2020. The courts (at all levels)...more
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a withdrawal liability decision of which both multiemployer pension plans and their contributing employers should be aware. Specifically, in National Retirement Fund v. Metz...more
This edition of Employment Flash looks at recent NLRB activity, including its issuance of a decision suggesting two members would be willing to reconsider a precedent regarding surveillance of employees’ union activity. We...more
The withdrawal liability case of the year came to an anticlimactic end on Monday, September 16, 2019, as the Second Circuit docket sheet of New York Times Company v. Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Publishers' Pension Fund...more
Many California cities and public agencies negotiate with — and reach memorandums of understanding with — their union bargaining partners on a regular basis. In some cases, these unions are local police or firefighter...more
In Bakery and Confectionery Union Fund v. Just Born II, Inc., the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 26, 2018, affirmed the district court’s judgment requiring Just Born to pay delinquent contributions into the Bakery...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: While an employer can bargain to impasse and exit a critical status multiemployer pension fund, under the Pension Protection Act it cannot bargain to impasse and implement a proposal that would have it...more
From theory to practice, planning to enforcement, the answers to 42 of the most frequently asked questions can help you prepare, cope or respond to a restructuring. This Client Alert answers some of the most frequently asked...more
Employers’ perceptions about their legal responsibilities for certain workers is not always reality. Although an employer may classify workers as temporary workers or independent contractors, that does not mean the...more
As promised by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in late-2015, the Federally-Facilitated Marketplaces (FFMs) have started sending notices informing employers that employees have enrolled in a FFM and were...more
The so-called “Cadillac Tax” (Internal Revenue Code Section 4980I) applies starting in 2018 and was intended to provide a means to address what were perceived as overly rich employer-provided health benefit plan designs, as...more
The IRS recently issued final instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B and Forms 1094-C and 1095-C . The 2015 Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B implement a suggestion we made in a previous post relating to the...more
I have blogged in the past about situations where employers unexpectedly found themselves liable for withdrawal liability imposed by a multiemployer plan. We can add a recent case from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to...more
From theory to practice, planning to enforcement, the answers to 42 of the most frequently asked questions can help you prepare, cope, or respond to a restructuring. This Client Alert answers some of the most...more
The PBGC has announced that it will not continue its moratorium on enforcing ERISA section 4062(e) events. This announcement comes following the changes to section 4062(e) that were made under the Multiemployer Pension Reform...more
The Second Circuit held that the owner of a contributing employer to multiemployer benefit plans breached his fiduciary duties by failing to make required contributions and was thus personally liable for the delinquencies,...more