Hospital workers still unsure whether distant religious link exempts retirement plans from federal ERISA compliance San Francisco, CADignity Health has agreed to pay $100 million to settle a proposed class action ERISA lawsuit that accused it of using a undeserved religious exemption to justify underfunding its pension plan by $1.5 billion. The proposed settlement would require Dignity Health to add $50 million in retirement plan funding in 2020 and at least $50 million in 2021. In addition, the settlement requires Dignity Health to refrain from reducing participants’ accrued benefits because of a plan merger or amendment for 10 years. Dignity Health has also promised to fund the plan until 2024, making the minimum contribution recommended by actuaries to the plan. Rollins v. Dignity Health raises at least four big questions. These are: • The role played by religious organizations in providing healthcare; • What mergers and consolidations in the healthcare industry mean for healthcare workers; • When and if the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment should affect how federal employment and pension law is applied; and • What recourse healthcare workers who participate in federally exempt “church plans” have when they discover that there is […]
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