July 10 (Reuters) – AT&T agreed to pay $184.1 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the telecommunications company of shortchanging about 300,000 current and former employees out of pension payments, court papers show.
• A preliminary settlement of the proposed class action was filed on Thursday in San Francisco federal court, and requires a judge’s approval.
• AT&T was accused of violating the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA, by failing to provide pension payments to married workers that were the “actuarial equivalent” of payments to single workers.
• Employees said the Dallas-based company used mortality data that were decades out of date to calculate payments, causing married workers to receive less.
• According to settlement papers, employees would receive $149.1 million of additional pension benefits, including $113.5 million for retired employees and $35.6 million for current employees. Their lawyers may seek up to $35 million to cover legal fees and costs.
• The lawsuit began in October 2020.
• AT&T denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle. In a statement, AT&T said it settled to avoid the expense and distraction of prolonged litigation, and is committed to following the law in administering its pension benefit plan.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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