Nurses at Cincinnati-based St. Elizabeth Medical Center have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the hospital over how it classifies its pension plan, according to Bloomberg BNA.
The religiously affiliated medical center currently treats its pension plan as a church plan, meaning it is exempt from the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. However, the lawsuit, which was filed March 17, alleges this is unlawful, and St. Elizabeth must comply with the ERISA.
The class-action lawsuit accuses St. Elizabeth Medical Center of using the exemption to underfund the employees' pension plan by more than $204 million, according to the report.
"As a result of its bogus claim that it is a church, the company avoids its statutory retirement plan funding obligations to employees and thereby obtains a competitive advantage over other healthcare providers who meet their financial obligations to their employees," the lawsuit claims.
St. Elizabeth commented on the issue via a spokesman, according to the report: "We can't comment on any active litigation matter. However, as we stated previously, our senior management team and board of trustees have made the commitment to fund the pension at the same levels required of ERISA plans, even though we are not required to follow ERISA funding requirements as a non-ERISA church plan."