A participant in a defined benefit plan for union workers administered by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. sued the company and pension plan executives alleging that some workers have been shortchanged on their benefits in violation of ERISA rules.
The lawsuit claimed that workers were adversely affected because the pension plan used an allegedly out-of-date mortality table to calculate the benefits for retirees, The suit, Herndon vs. Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Newport News, Va.
The complaint affects some workers in the Newport News Operations Pension Plan that was negotiated as part of a collective bargaining agreement with United Steelworkers Local 8888. The complaint affects only participants in the legacy plan, which is the pension plan covering employees hired before June 7, 2004.
The plan's use of a 1971 mortality table results in "monthly payments that are materially lower than if defendants used reasonable, current actuarial assumptions," the lawsuit said.
Beci Brenton, a spokeswoman for Newport News, Va.-based Huntington Ingalls, wrote in an email that the shipbuilding company doesn't comment about ongoing litigation.