Financial News
Secret Harris Corporation Documents Reveal Legal Threats to Thousands of Former Employees
By:
PRLog
March 15, 2016 at 11:58 AM EDT
Defense Contractor Retaliates Against Elderly Vets and Retirees by Discouraging Challenges to Benefits Cuts
STAMFORD, Conn. - March 15, 2016 - PRLog -- Concerned ITT Retirees, a group working on behalf of the threatened former employees, has become aware of documents signed in secret by the recently acquired subsidiary, Exelis Inc., under orders of its new parent owner, Harris Corporation, at the same time as summarily terminating long-standing retiree life insurance benefits for over 6000 Veterans and retirees.
These Harris Corporation documents amend the retiree life insurance benefit plan to severely limit the legal rights of the former employees by:
· - Shortening the time the former employees can challenge Harris Corporation's actions.
· - Requiring that the former employees travel to Melbourne, FL, home of Harris Corporation's corporate headquarters, to go to court against the company.
· - Making the former employees, if they lose in court, pay potentially staggering fees for Harris Corporation's lawyers.
These secret rules have the effect of blocking the former employees from challenging Harris Corporation in court. Ignoring ERISA rules, Harris Corporation has never disclosed these changes to all the former employees who thought for years they had been promised meaningful life insurance.
Harris Corporation recently disclosed, for the first time publicly, that it took away more than $100 Million in benefits from the former employees by cancelling their retiree life insurance.
Concerned ITT Retirees (CITTR) has learned that investigators from the Miami office of the U.S. Department of Labor will be reviewing Harris Corporation's actions.
The former employees expected Harris Corporation, as a major Defense contractor, to meet the highest ethical standards of fairness, integrity, transparency and accountability. These secret actions fail to meet those standards.
"By discouraging through intimidation the exercise of legally protected employee benefits rights, Harris Corporation may be illegally retaliating against the former employees," according to Richard S. Ward, Chairman of CITTR. He added, "Why these offensive provisions were not disclosed at the time over 6000 retirees were told their long-standing life insurance benefit was being cancelled is hard to understand. Harris Corporation must reverse these secret provisions and restore the legal rights of thousands of elderly Veterans and retirees."
About Concerned ITT Retirees
Concerned ITT Retirees (www.concernedittretirees.tumblr.com) is an Unincorporated Nonprofit Association representing the interests of ITT retirees. It was formed in 2011 to address retiree issues during the 2011 reorganization of ITT Corporation (previously named ITT Industries, Inc.) leading to the spin-off of the ITT Defense business and formation of Exelis Inc. (also spun-off was ITT's Water business, renamed Xylem, Inc.). Concerned ITT Retirees is seeking to protect the interests of ITT retirees in their retiree benefits as impacted by the 2015 acquisition of Exelis by Harris Corporation. ITT retirees may join Concerned ITT Retirees by signing up at
http://bit.ly/1I47KdO
Email: ConcernedITTRetirees@gmail.com
Twitter: @ITTRetirees
www.concernedittretirees.tumblr.com
Read Full Story - Secret Harris Corporation Documents Reveal Legal Threats to Thousands of Former Employees | More news from this source
Press release distribution by PRLog
STAMFORD, Conn. - March 15, 2016 - PRLog -- Concerned ITT Retirees, a group working on behalf of the threatened former employees, has become aware of documents signed in secret by the recently acquired subsidiary, Exelis Inc., under orders of its new parent owner, Harris Corporation, at the same time as summarily terminating long-standing retiree life insurance benefits for over 6000 Veterans and retirees.
These Harris Corporation documents amend the retiree life insurance benefit plan to severely limit the legal rights of the former employees by:
· - Shortening the time the former employees can challenge Harris Corporation's actions.
· - Requiring that the former employees travel to Melbourne, FL, home of Harris Corporation's corporate headquarters, to go to court against the company.
· - Making the former employees, if they lose in court, pay potentially staggering fees for Harris Corporation's lawyers.
These secret rules have the effect of blocking the former employees from challenging Harris Corporation in court. Ignoring ERISA rules, Harris Corporation has never disclosed these changes to all the former employees who thought for years they had been promised meaningful life insurance.
Harris Corporation recently disclosed, for the first time publicly, that it took away more than $100 Million in benefits from the former employees by cancelling their retiree life insurance.
Concerned ITT Retirees (CITTR) has learned that investigators from the Miami office of the U.S. Department of Labor will be reviewing Harris Corporation's actions.
The former employees expected Harris Corporation, as a major Defense contractor, to meet the highest ethical standards of fairness, integrity, transparency and accountability. These secret actions fail to meet those standards.
"By discouraging through intimidation the exercise of legally protected employee benefits rights, Harris Corporation may be illegally retaliating against the former employees," according to Richard S. Ward, Chairman of CITTR. He added, "Why these offensive provisions were not disclosed at the time over 6000 retirees were told their long-standing life insurance benefit was being cancelled is hard to understand. Harris Corporation must reverse these secret provisions and restore the legal rights of thousands of elderly Veterans and retirees."
About Concerned ITT Retirees
Concerned ITT Retirees (www.concernedittretirees.tumblr.com) is an Unincorporated Nonprofit Association representing the interests of ITT retirees. It was formed in 2011 to address retiree issues during the 2011 reorganization of ITT Corporation (previously named ITT Industries, Inc.) leading to the spin-off of the ITT Defense business and formation of Exelis Inc. (also spun-off was ITT's Water business, renamed Xylem, Inc.). Concerned ITT Retirees is seeking to protect the interests of ITT retirees in their retiree benefits as impacted by the 2015 acquisition of Exelis by Harris Corporation. ITT retirees may join Concerned ITT Retirees by signing up at
http://bit.ly/1I47KdO
Email: ConcernedITTRetirees@gmail.com
Twitter: @ITTRetirees
www.concernedittretirees.tumblr.com
Read Full Story - Secret Harris Corporation Documents Reveal Legal Threats to Thousands of Former Employees | More news from this source
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