M & K Employee Solutions, LLC v. Trustees of the IAM Pension Fund (US 23-1209 oral argument 1/20/26) ERISA | Employer Withdrawal Liability from Multiemployer Pension Plan – Employment Law Weekly

M & K Employee Solutions, LLC v. Trustees of the IAM Pension Fund (US 23-1209 oral argument 1/20/26) ERISA | Employer Withdrawal Liability from Multiemployer Pension Plan

Phyllis W. Cheng, Esq.

ADR Services Mediator, Former Director of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”)

January 20, 2026

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act imposes “withdrawal liability”when an employer withdraws from an underfunded multiemployer pension plan. This withdrawal liabilty covers the employer’s share of the plan’s underfunding. Because a plan’s amount of underfunding hinges on projections about its projected liabilities and assets decades into the future, withdrawal liability computations are partly a product of actuarial assumptions about anticipated interest rates and other predictions. Withdrawal liability must be computed “as of the end of the plan year preceding the plan year in

which the employer withdraws.” E.g., 29 U.S.C. 1391(b)(2)(E)(i). The question presented is:

Whether 29 U.S.C. 1391’s instruction to compute withdrawal liability “as of the end of the plan year” requires the plan to base the computation on the actuarial assumptions to which its actuary subscribed at the end of the year, or allows the plan to use different actuarial assumptions that were adopted after the end of the year.

Transcript

Audio

D.C. Circuit Decision

There are 0 comments

Share:

More Posts

Current Status of Non-Compete Clauses in Employment Contracts

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a final rule in April 2024 banning most non-compete agreements in employment contracts, with an effective date of September

Fed Court Uses Rule 23(d) to Limit Arbitration Opt Out Abuse

The plaintiffs, Bo Avery, Phoebe Rogers, Kristy Camilleri, and Jill Unverferth, alleged that TEKsystems, a professional staffing agency that places IT consultants with business clients, had

Trustees of the Cal. State Univ. v. Public Emp. Relations Bd. (CA2/3 B340818 1/26/26) PERB | Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act

The present action was brought under the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA) (Gov. Code, §§ 3560 et seq.), which governs labor relations between public

Congress Proposes Changes to Federal WARN Act

The Fair Warning Act of 2025, introduced as H.R. 5761 in the 119th Congress, represents a significant proposed overhaul of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining

Send Us A Message