Compliance July 25, 2013

Retirement Plan Investigated for Alleged ERISA Violations

A law firm is investigating whether RadioShack Corporation violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) by offering company stock in its retirement plan.
Reported by

Zamansky LLC—a law firm specializing in securities class actions, securities arbitration and litigation over stock broker fraud—is investigating RadioShack Corporation’s Employee Retirement and 401(k) Plan and whether there were ERISA violations connected with it. A statement from the law firm says, “ERISA imposes fiduciary duties on companies to prudently manage and invest plan assets, including offerings of company stock, and to disclose material facts to plan participants.”

On July 11, 2013, Reuters reported that RadioShack’s share price fell on news that it was considering hiring a financial adviser to assist with restructuring its balance sheet. RadioShack employees who invested in stock under the company’s retirement plan expressed concern that they have invested imprudently, according to ERISA attorney Jake Zamansky.

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The law firm noted that on July 24, 2012, a securities fraud class action lawsuit was filed against the company, as Fidel v. RadioShack Corporation, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (No. 12-CV-58255). The suit alleges that management made material misrepresentations about the company’s earnings.

Diversions July 25, 2013

Welcome to the ‘Workcation’

Swimsuit? Goggles? Sunblock? Check. And don’t forget your smartphone, which more than half of employed vacationers say they’ll bring along.

Reported by

Sixty-one percent of respondents in the annual Work/Life Balance Index by TeamViewer said they would work while on vacation, up from 52% who said they would work in a similar survey released in 2012. Respondents in both surveys are employed Americans, age 18 and older.

The favored device to bring on vacation is the smartphone (61%). Three-fifths of respondents said they planned on bringing up to three work-capable devices on vacation. Two thirds of vacationers (67%) said they actually expect to use one of these devices for work-related purposes, with smartphone (40%) as the most popular device to use for work, followed by laptop (39%), desktop computer (24%) and tablet (18%).

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Tasks the participants said they’d perform include:

  • Reading work-related emails (38% versus 30% in 2012);
  • Wanting work-related access to a document on work/home computer (32% versus 19% in the previous survey);  
  • Receiving work-related calls (30% versus 23%);
  • Receiving work-related text messages (24% versus 18%); and
  • Being asked to do work by a boss, client or colleague (20% versus 13%).

 

And it’s not surprising that Americans plan to go on vacation armed with the work-capable devices they need. A majority (83%) agree that having to work during vacation is becoming more common in America, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy about it. In fact, 89% say they would react if they were asked to work during vacation by their boss, many in emotional or even sneaky ways, including:

  • Do the work, but not happily (34%);
  • Feel that the boss doesn’t respect the worker’s time (29%);
  • Worry about the boundaries of my personal life (24%);
  • Say no (22%);
  • Be happy to do the work (14%);
  • Turn off the devices and ignore it altogether (13%); and
  • Pretend not to see the incoming message or text (11%).


Interestingly, the study shows that the trend of mixing work into summer vacation is particularly acute among Generation Y, those ages 18 to 34, who are statistically more likely than any other age group to say they expect to work during their vacation (73%), expect to bring a work-capable device (82%) and need to use it (79%).

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