Plumbing Contractor Supervisor Beats Appeal Over Pension Pause

A plumbers’ pension fund failed to convince the Third Circuit to undo a decision awarding more than three years of retroactive benefits to a worker who spent part of his career in management.

The Plumbers Local Union No. 27 Pension Fund wrongly suspended the worker’s benefits by treating his role as senior project manager as employment in a “trade or craft utilized in the industry,” the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit saidThursday. A “trade or craft” requires manual or artistic skill, and this term doesn’t apply to the worker’s position in a “professional office environment,” the ...