860 retirees part of class action suit against Johnson Controls

A U.S. District Court judge has granted a request to form six subclasses in a lawsuit against Johnson Controls Inc. over retiree health care benefits.

According to the order filed in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Judge Sylvia Rambo approved the request, which  includes about 860 retirees who built products at manufacturing facilities in the York area that are now owned by Johnson Controls. Those include Borg-Warner Air Conditioning Inc., Applied Systems and York International Corp.

The original suit, filed in December 2012, was brought by five retirees against Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, which is now the plan sponsor and fiduciary of the employee benefit plan that provides retiree health benefits to the retirees, according to court documents.

The suit states the retirees and their spouses, through bargaining agreements with UAW Local 1872 while they were employed, were to receive health care benefits “throughout their retirement, with no lifetime maximum limit or cap on benefits,” court documents state.

The retirees allege Johnson Controls unilaterally reduced the retiree health benefits by instituting a $50,000 cap on benefits incurred by each participant after age 65.

A motion to create the subclasses was filed on Oct. 28 and Rambo made her ruling Dec. 3, after Johnson Controls’ attorneys filed a response Nov. 17 stating the company did not object, according to court documents.

According to Rambo’s order, the subclasses include union-represented employees who worked at Johnson Controls or its predecessors in the York area and their spouses:

Subclass A - retired before Nov. 1, 1984;

Subclass B - retired between Nov. 1, 1984, and Oct. 31, 1996;

Subclass C - retired between Nov. 1, 1996, and June 30, 2000;

Subclass D - retired between July 1, 2000, and June 30, 2003;

Subclass E - retired between July 1, 2003, and July 30, 2006;

Subclass F - retired between July 31, 2006, and July 1, 2009.

Johnson Controls bought York International in December 2005 for $3.2 billion, according to Business Journal records.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal