KONE Retiree Wins Pension Suit Over Canadian Employment Taxes

KONE Inc. wrongly shortchanged a longtime employee’s retirement benefits by reducing his pension-eligible compensation to account for Canadian employment taxes paid while he was on assignment in the country, a federal judge said.

The elevator engineering company unreasonably interpreted the word “compensation” in its pension plan to exclude amounts payable to foreign taxing authorities on behalf of employees working abroad, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said Thursday. KONE didn’t properly explain why it interpreted the word differently based on an employee’s location, or why this should have caused plaintiff Robert Haynes to see his pension-eligible ...