Court OKs $34 Million Class Settlement To Be Paid to 4,500 Former Avnet Workers

As many as 4,500 former Avnet Inc. employees who participated in the company’s cash balance pension plan will be sharing in a $34 million Employee Retirement Income Security Act settlement approved April 14 by the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Traylor v. Avnet Inc.).

The settlement brings an end to claims that Avnet violated ERISA by failing to use a “whipsaw” calculation in calculating lump-sum distributions of employees who left the company before reaching normal retirement age.

Prior to the 2006 passage of the Pension Protection Act, cash balance plans were required to use a ...