Alaska Electrical Pension Fund, Anchorage, with $1 billion in assets...

Alaska Electrical Pension Fund, Anchorage, with $1 billion in assets, has settled a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of current and former plan participants who worked on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline project. Under the terms of the settlement, $18 million will be made available to the plaintiffs and their survivors, who number almost 3,600. The suit sought to recover retirement benefits for workers with less than 10 years of service who were laid off and ceased to be plan participants. Most laid-off workers had not reached the 10-year vesting period, so benefits based on their employers’ contributions were forfeited, unless workers returned to the plan or a reciprocal plan within the electrical industry within the next few years.