MORE than 200 workers, made redundant from Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica Inc in 2001, have taken their former employer to court to recover a portion of the $266 million in surplus they claim was made from a wound-up pension scheme.

In a claim filed in the Supreme Court, the workers charge that they have not been paid any of the surplus from the pension plan that Alcoa discontinued after making them redudant in December 2001. They say they were only refunded their personal contribution to the scheme, plus interest.

The workers allege that when they demanded their portion of the surplus, including accrued interest in 2004, they were written to by the company's attorneys who informed them that the money had already been distributed among employees and members of the scheme.

The claimants also charge that the trustees of the scheme in 2004 had acted "contrary to their duty" to protect the beneficiaries under the scheme, when they sought to take steps to divert trust funds back to the company "in contravention of the provisions of the Trust Deed".

In 2004, the claimants said, it was discovered that on October 25, 2001 the Trustees, who are named as defendants in the suit, purported to amend the rules of the pension plan to, among other things, delete the section of plan which states, "If the plan is discontinued, no further contributions shall be payable. No part of the assets of the plan shall revert to the employer." and to replace it with a provision which allows for any remaining money in the scheme to be returned to the employer, or otherwise, as allocated by the tustees.

The purported amendment was allegedly signed off by a former trustee member. In the court documents the member, however, denied signing off on the amendment and is alleging that his signature was procured by fraudulent means, as he was dismissed from the company on October 14, several days before the amendment of October 25, 2001.

But Alcoa, in its defence, denied the claims, saying that it had made full payment to the workers from the surplus between 2001 and 2003 after deducting the necessary expenses, along with other relevant redundancy payments. It said also that the amendments to the pension rules were lawfully made.

When the parties appeared in court on Tuesday, the matter was set for trial July 6 to 10, 2009.
Attorney Bryan Barnes of the law firm Wilson, Franklyn and Barnes are representing the claimants in the matter.

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