In Reply to: Guilty! posted by PP on 01 August 2003 at 07:54:23:
:
: The lawsuit has been certified a class action, covering about 130,000 I.B.M. workers and retirees in the United States. Court documents show that I.B.M. projected it would save billions of dollars in pension costs over the years after the changes took effect. Some of that was to be used to create pensions for executives.
: "All cash-balance plans would be viewed as age discriminatory" if the ruling is upheld on appeal, said David M. Speier, senior consulting actuary with Watson Wyatt, a consulting firm that has helped I.B.M. and other companies make changes to their pension plans. Cash-balance plans, which are more common than pension equity plans, cover more than two million employees at hundreds of companies.
This may be very significant to the UK. If a similar action were bought in the UK then it might mean that UK companies would be forced to roll back their pensions from money purchase to defined benefits. This could be good for any company that could afford it (if they exist) but could bring down many. I wonder whether US companies will be forced to make subsidiaries comply.
GG