2 Questions

¶ … trustees' actions, requiring the company plan to pay additional fees to the detriment of the interest of the pensioners, may have been abhorrent and unethical, strictly speaking according to the letter of the law, they were not a violation of the specific terms that are covered under ERISA. First of all, ERISA "does not require any employer to establish a pension plan. It only requires that those who establish plans must meet certain minimum standards. The law generally does not specify how much money a participant must be paid as a benefit." (ERISA, "Compliance Assistance," 2005) Nor does it specify that the pension must be of a certain amount, and is not subject to change, dependant upon the whims of the market and other commercial demands.

If the employer does maintain a plan, ERISA merely requires that the employee who is eligible to become a part of the pension plan is informed when he or she is "allowed to become a participant, how long you [the employee] have to work before you have a non-forfeitable interest in your pension," if such a non-forfeitable interest exists, "how long you [the employee] can be away from your job before it might affect your benefits, and whether your spouse has a right to part of your pension in the event of your death."(ERISA, "Compliance Assistance," 2005) The additional fees that were incurred on the part of the plan and the methods by which they were incurred might be in legal violation of other laws regarding free and fair disclosure of all business practices, but they do not specifically apply to ERISA, which details the terms of the initial agreement regarding the pension plan. According to the plans original terms, as specified, there was no initial agreement that a certain, stipulated sum had to be paid as part of the pension that could not be forfeited, or if the business dealing delineated in the plan varied from ERISA.

Question 2

The fear upon the part of undocumented workers is usually so great that most would inevitably desist from any legal redress of their rights at all, for fear of being sent back 'where they came from." The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) establishes "minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in Federal, State, and local governments. Covered nonexempt workers are entitled to a minimum wage of not less than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and one-half times their regular rates of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a workweek." Nonexempt workers are workers such as, for example, waitresses or other workers on commissioned sales, who receive a lower base pay in exchange for other methods of compensation.