Bakery and Confectionery Union and Industry International Pension Fund "Golden 80" ERISA Class Action Lawsuit

Seeger Weiss LLP has filed a class action lawsuit against the Bakery and Confectionery Union and Industry International Pension Fund, concerning the reduction of pension benefits through the "Golden 80" option.

Members of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers Union and participants in its Pension Plan had been given the right to retire on a full pension under an alternative formula commonly known as Plan G, or more commonly as the “Golden 80.” Under that formula, plan participants could qualify for a full pension by adding their years of service to their age. Once these figures totaled 80, they were eligible for a full pension equal to what they would be eligible for at age 65. For example, a 50-year-old Plan participant who had worked as a Union employee for 30 years would qualify for a full pension under the Plan.

Many Entemann’s union workers accepted “buy-out” offers from the company as it downsized its personnel in recent years or accepted management positions, based on the understanding and expectation that they would qualify for a full pension under the Golden 80 option. But as of July 1, 2010, Pension Plan participants not already eligible for their full pension under the Golden 80 formula had their benefits cut by 60%. These eight men, with the help of Seeger Weiss, seek the redress of the illegally-diminished benefits on behalf of themselves and the thousands of other workers, either at Entemann’s or at other unionized bakeries across the country, who participate in their Union’s Pension Plan nationwide.

In suddenly amending the Pension Plan to reduce Golden 80 retirement benefits by 60% for those who had not already reached their full pension eligibility date, the Bakery and Confectionary Union and Industry International Pension Fund violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), the law that Congress passed in 1974 to protect workers’ pensions. The Pension Plan has refused to treat the earned and accumulated credits of the eight employees, and the thousands of other affected workers, as protected benefits under the ERISA statute, and insists that participants cannot receive a full pension until age 65, regardless of how many years they worked. It thus believes that it can unilaterally reduce workers’ vested and accrued pension benefits. 

Seeger Weiss insists that the pension they had been promised is a benefit, and cannot be reduced merely because they had not already reached the required number of 80 total credits of age plus years of service before last July 1st.

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