It's ordered to pay up, ending pensions case
A judge has ordered Xerox Corp. to pay a group of retirees who claimed that the company improperly calculated their pensions.
A group of about 120 retirees filed a lawsuit against the company in 1999. All had left Xerox for a time and later returned. They claimed that Xerox failed to inform them about a change in their pensions before they retired and that they are entitled to credit for lost years of service.
U.S. District Court Judge David Larimer ordered Xerox to recalculate the retirees' benefits and pay the difference between what each person received and the value of the recalculated benefit.
In total, that sum could exceed $30 million, said Robert Jaffe, a New Jersey-based lawyer representing the workers. Some retirees are individually entitled to as much as $800,000, he said.
Larimer's decision also opens the door for other retirees, perhaps 1,000 or more, to be covered in the process, Jaffe said.
"This was an extremely well-reasoned decision," Jaffe said. "I thought the judge did a thorough job."
Jaffe said retirees who weren't part of the lawsuit, but may be entitled to payments, should call a lawyer. "These folks have a ticket and they can redeem it," he said.
A Xerox spokeswoman said the company was disappointed in parts of the decision but found workable parts as well.
"There are certain aspects we still need to evaluate," Christa Carone said.
In January 2006, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City ruled that Xerox violated the Employee Retiree Income Security Act in determining the benefits and did not properly inform the retirees about the change in how they were calculated.
That court sent the case back to Larimer for a decision on how the employees should be compensated. A two-day hearing was held in Rochester in July to discuss the methods of calculating benefits.
In his recent ruling ordering the company to pay, Larimer also asked both sides to submit responses within 30 days on the specifics of the compensation plan.
DTYLER@DemocratandChronicle.com
