Congress must tend to retiree concerns

Retirees who face financial hardship due to pension reductions or loss cannot go back and do over their life's work history. They must depend upon the pensions they have earned. Congress is addressing several issues concerning retiree pensions including those from multi-employers. Here are a few more issues Congress should consider to better secure retiree pensions:

Annual funding notices should be timelier, show the interest rates used to calculate the funding level(s) and reflect the government's (PBGCs) view of them.

Restrictions on the merging of pension plans with the PBGC's approval are required to protect retirees in higher funded plans. Companies are doing this to avoid payments into lower-funded plans.

The use of so-called pension smoothing techniques (giving companies more time) to fund unrelated programs should be severely restricted. These subvert pension security.

In the case of bankruptcy, retirees should have a standing in court to claims on assets and be represented on the bankruptcy board.

Golden parachutes for executives retiring or downsized should not be paid out of a pension fund.

In mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs, the funding of all resulting pension plans or merging of should be approved by the PBGC.

ERISA (the Employee Retiree Income Security Act) needs updating to close the loopholes and problems encountered in the past decade or so. Congress should pay more attention to retiree concerns.

A.A. Austin, Del City