%1

Philadelphia Energy Solutions will defer retirement payments to union members until next year, the company said in a letter to the union last week, the latest sign the refiner is struggling to find its financial footing after emerging from bankruptcy less than a year ago, Reuters reported. The company informed union members late last week that it was deferring company matched bi-weekly payments into their retirement accounts and will instead make a lump-sum payment on April 1, 2020, according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. The company did not provide an explanation for the switch, but the move will allow it to save cash in the short term but comes with the risk of building up a sizable liability. If the company were to file for bankruptcy, for example, the union would join other creditors in seeking payments. The move angered the union, which recently set up a picket line at the refinery’s front gates.

Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) yesterday rolled out a bipartisan bill aimed at reforming the retirement system as lawmakers eye sweeping changes to the plans, The Hill reported. The bill from Portman and Cardin, both members of the Senate Finance Committee, includes a number of provisions in four areas: allowing people who haven't saved enough money to set more money aside for their retirement, making it easier for small businesses to offer retirement plans, expanding access to retirement plans for low-income people and providing more flexibility for retirees. One of the measure's provisions would allow companies to make matching contributions to their employees' retirement plans if the employees are repaying student loans. That topic was also the subject of legislation that Cardin, Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and other Democrats on the panel offered on Monday.

The Pasco, Fla., firefighters’ union is seeking bankruptcy protection from debts tied to a jury verdict and legal fees awarded to two firefighters who said they faced union retaliation after filing discrimination complaints a dozen years ago, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The Pasco County Professional Firefighters Local 4420 filed a chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tampa on April 1 that, if granted, would allow it to reorganize its debts. The petition lists the largest creditors as the two Pasco Fire Rescue employees who successfully sued the union and Pasco County — Jerry Brown, a driver/engineer, and Anthony Booth, now a captain. They are owed a combined $189,000, and their attorneys are due more than $89,000. The union also hasn’t paid its state and national dues of nearly $10,600, according to the filing. The bankruptcy court proceeding is not expected to affect the union’s ability to continue negotiations with Pasco County on annual salary adjustments. Local 4420 bargains on behalf of approximately 560 Pasco firefighters, most of whom are dues-paying members.

Forty years after the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident in U.S. history unfolded on Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the only nuclear power reactor still operating there is preparing to shut down, the New York Times reported. The facility, which is near Middletown, Pa., has been losing money, and in a statement yesterday, Exelon Generation, the company that owns the plant, said that it would be closed by Sept. 30. The company and its employees had been hoping for a subsidy from the state, and when that fell through, a shutdown was the only option, according to the company. An Exelon spokesman said that the cost of decommissioning the site was estimated at around $1.2 billion. The plant on Three Mile Island, which sits in the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township in central Pennsylvania, has been struggling financially for years. Exelon announced as early as 2017 that it would close down the plant “absent needed policy reforms.” Supporters of nuclear energy went after those reforms: Two bills were introduced in the State Legislature that would have steered about $500 million to clean power producers in Pennsylvania, with nuclear plants as the main beneficiaries. That might have kept Three Mile Island open, but no action was taken on the measures.

Under pressure from President Donald Trump, General Motors Co. said yesterday that it was in talks to sell an idled northeast Ohio plant to a cash-strapped electric truck-building company. The No. 1 U.S. automaker also said it would invest $700 million in three other plants in Ohio and maintain some operations at a Canadian factory that had been slated to close by year end. The decisions came after GM faced months of criticism over its plan announced in November to close five North American plants and cut 15,000 jobs. GM’s decision to close the small-car assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, had become political fodder. Loveland, Ohio-based Workhorse is a small electric truck and drone startup that has reported losses totaling almost $150 million since its launch in 2007, according to the company’s financial documents. It had just $2.8 million in cash on hand at the end of March and reported first-quarter sales of $364,000. Trump, who disclosed GM’s plans for Lordstown in a Wednesday tweet, said the deal with Cincinnati-based Workhorse Group Inc will require the approval of the United Auto Workers union. However, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine expressed caution. “This is a step, but we have a long way to go,” DeWine said.

The vast majority of Pennsylvania state lawmakers are choosing a traditional pension benefit for themselves after passing legislation that ended that option for most newly hired employees in public schools and state government, PennLive.com reported. A state law passed in 2017 to revamp the Pennsylvania pension plans for future state workers and school employees. That law included a provision that gave lawmakers until the end of March of this year to decide whether to switch from the traditional guaranteed pension plan into one of the new plan options. As of April 1, only 20 of the 218 lawmakers who participated in the state pension system at that time chose the 401(k)-style plan option, according to a PennLive analysis. PennLive obtained records from the State Employees’ Retirement System through a Right-to-Know request. The remaining 198 — including 43 freshmen lawmakers who signed up for pension benefits — elected the traditional guaranteed pension plan.

Workers lining up jobs through smartphone apps and websites such as Handy and Angie’s List are independent contractors and not employees of those platforms, the Labor Department said in a letter yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported. An unidentified “virtual marketplace company” sought clarification on whether service providers hired through the platform are considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the letter said. The 1938 law addresses minimum wage, overtime and other labor rules. The publicly issued “opinion letter” said service providers are not working for the virtual marketplace, but working for consumers through the marketplace. While the Fair Labor Standards Act “has a very broad scope of coverage, it is not so broad that all workers are caught within its reach — far from it,” the letter stated. The letter doesn’t represent a new regulation or law, and doesn’t carry the same weight in court. It serves to demonstrate how the department would make determinations on relevant questions — if it were asked, for example, whether a violation of overtime laws occurred.