Seyfarth Synopsis: While an employer can bargain to impasse and exit a critical status multiemployer pension fund, under the Pension Protection Act it cannot bargain to impasse and implement a proposal that would have it remain in the fund, but under different terms than the rehabilitation plan schedule the parties had previously adopted.
In a case of first impression, the Fourth Circuit held that the Pension Protection Act's ("PPA") obligation on bargaining parties to continue to follow a multiemployer pension fund's rehabilitation plan schedule trumps an employer's right, upon lawful impasse, to unilaterally implement a proposal to move new hires to a 401(k) plan. Bakery & Confectionary Union & Industry International Pension Fund v. Just Born II, Inc., Case No. 17-1369 (4th Cir., decided April 26, 2018).
Just Born, the maker of Peeps, participated in the Bakery & Confectionary Union & Industry International Pension Fund ("Pension Fund"). The Pension Fund is in critical and declining status, and had adopted a rehabilitation plan under the PPA which included a preferred schedule adopted by the Company and its Union pursuant to which Just Born was required to contribute hourly for every bargaining unit employee.
The Company proposed during its 2015 union negotiations that it remain in the Pension Fund for existing employees, but move new hires to a 401(k) plan. The parties bargained to impasse, and the Company implemented its pension proposal. The Pension Fund sued. The Pension Fund relied on a PPA provision (as amended by the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act), 29 U.S.C. § 1085(e)(3)(C)(ii) ("the "Provision"), that the bargaining parties to an expired contract remain obligated to contribute under the rehabilitation plan schedule, which under the Pension Fund's schedule included all employees, until such time as they reached an agreement. Indeed, the Provision expressly provides that if the parties cannot reach an agreement within 180 days after contract expiration, the Pension Fund must apply the schedule, as updated, upon which the parties had previously agreed.
The Fourth Circuit ruled for the Pension Fund. In addition to rejecting various affirmative defenses, the Court rejected the Company's claim that it ceased being a "bargaining party" governed by the Provision once it reached a lawful impasse because it was no longer a party to an operative collective bargaining agreement. The Court found that a plain reading of the Provision makes clear that a contract's expiration cannot alter the employer's status as a bargaining party. Indeed, the Provision only applies to parties whose contracts have expired.
The Court further rejected the Company's Hotel California argument that such an interpretation would mean that once an employer found itself in a critical status plan it would never be able to exit. The Company argued that Trustees of the Local 138 Pension Trust Fund v. F.W. Honerkamp Co., 692 F.3d 127 (2d Cir. 2012), which upheld an employer's right to bargain to impasse and implement a proposal to exit a critical status fund, gave it the Company the right to implement its proposal. The Court distinguished Honerkamp, for it did not provide that an employer could implement a proposal to remain in the fund under different rules than provided for in the rehabilitation plan.
Last but not least, the Company argued that the Pension Fund's interpretation undermined the Company's right under the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") to implement its last, best proposal upon impasse. The Court disagreed, noting that although the right to implement a final offer applies to the Company's bargaining rights and obligations, the Company's statutory obligations under the PPA are separate and independent from its rights and obligations under the NLRA. Just Born was free to bargain to impasse and implement its proposals provided, however, the Company could not implement proposals contrary to the PPA.
Just Born sets an important limit on an employer's right to bargain to impasse over its participation in a critical or endangered status fund. An employer is free under the PPA to bargain out and pay the resulting withdrawal liability, even if it has to reach lawful impasse and unilaterally implement. What it cannot do, according to Just Born, is to remain in the fund but negotiate to impasse and implement conditions on participation different from the rehabilitation or funding improvement plan schedule to which it is a party. Just Born does not address whether an employer can negotiate to impasse and implement a different schedule provided for in a rehabilitation plan — although it is doubtful since there would still be no agreement as required by the Provision. Nor does it provide that the bargaining parties can just agree to terms different from a rehabilitation plan schedule. While a fund may agree to different schedules, it is under no obligation to do so. Employers beware.
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