General Electric Retirees Preserve Rights in Pension Dispute

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Participants in pension plans formerly sponsored by General Electric have reached an Agreement with GE and two recently spun-off entities to preserve retirees' right to file a lawsuit if their pension benefits are not paid in full.

Over the last several decades, GE offered supplementary pension benefits to senior employees with long tenures of service. In 2020, GE shortened the period for participants in the largest of these plans—the GE Supplementary Pension Plan—to sue to protect their pension benefits to just one year. In 2021, GE announced plans to spin-off two new companies: GE HealthCare and GE Vernova. In 2022, GE transferred the supplementary pension benefits of over a thousand current and former GE employees to these smaller spun-off companies. GE told these people that GE was no longer responsible for paying their benefits, even if the new companies failed to pay in the future.

Concerned that the spun-off entities might not be able to pay their pension benefits as guaranteed, affected participants filed an administrative complaint against GE, claiming that GE had violated federal law by renouncing its obligation to pay their benefits if the spun-off entities were unable to do so.

Following negotiations with GE, the participants reached an Agreement that preserves their right to file a lawsuit against GE if their pension benefits are not paid in full in the future. The Agreement states that the one-year deadline to file a claim does not start until a participant is told they will not be receiving the full amount of their plan benefit, or until 90 days after a benefit payment goes unpaid. The Agreement further makes clear that participants whose benefits were transferred to the spun-off entities do not agree that GE is off the hook for their benefits.

"After serving GE for nearly 30 years, forgoing other opportunities for the promise of my supplementary pension benefits, I was concerned that my benefits were no longer secure," said Brian Davies, one of the GE retirees involved in the negotiations. "I am relieved that GE has agreed to preserve our ability to enforce our legal rights to protect my family's financial security in retirement."

The participants were represented by Engstrom Lee, a Minneapolis-based law firm that represents workers, retirees, and consumers. "Corporations are increasingly looking to cast off their obligation to pay their employees' retirement benefits, but the law does not let them off the hook." said Carl Engstrom, a partner at Engstrom Lee. "Our clients devoted their working years to GE and we are pleased to have ensured that they will have their day in court if their pension benefits are not paid." Engstrom Lee attorneys have been at the forefront of novel ERISA claims and class actions and have collectively recovered more than $300 million in retirement savings on behalf of more than 500,000 clients through class actions.

About Engstrom Lee:

Engstrom Lee is a plaintiffs' class-action firm that represents workers, retirees, and consumers.

The firm's attorneys are dedicated to leveraging their comprehensive investigations, deep knowledge of the finance industry, and stellar legal training to help their clients hold corporations accountable and win back what they deserve. Collectively they have more than 50 years of experience and have won recoveries for more than 500,000 clients through class actions. Contact us at [email protected].

For more information: https://www.engstromlee.com/ 

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SOURCE Engstrom Lee