Labor Department Obtains Court Order Restoring Employee Contributions To Wisconsin Pension Plan

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The owners of Team Tooling, Inc. in Fond du Lac, Wis., were ordered to make restitution to the plan for failure to remit voluntary employee contributions to the company’s retirement plan and were permanently barred from serving in positions of trust to any plan governed by federal pension law, as part of a consent order and judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Under the judgment, David E. Thibault and Madeline Thibault must restore $6,261.67 to the individual accounts of the other plan participants. The defendants also must notify affected participants of their entitlement to these additional distributions and the available options for distributing the retirement assets.

The lawsuit, filed simultaneously with the judgment, alleged that from June 1 to Sept. 16, 1996, the defendants withheld voluntary employee salary contributions from employee paychecks but failed to deposit the money in the individual accounts of participants, retaining the employee contributions in the general assets of the company in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

The lawsuit and judgment, filed in the federal district court in Milwaukee, Wis., on Oct. 22, resulted from an investigation conducted by the Chicago Regional Office of the department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into violations of ERISA. The Chicago office covers pension, health and other welfare plans located in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

“Our goal is to assure that consumers know that the department is only a phone call away to help protect the benefits promised by employers,” said Ken Bazar, director of PWBA’s Chicago Regional Office. “Employers and workers can reach us at 312-353-0900 for help with any problems relating to private-sector pension and health plans.”

Herman v. Thibault
Civil Action No. 99-C-1242

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Contact Name: Rita Ford
Phone Number: 202.219.892