AOL Reversal - a Win for Workers

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

Last week the president of AOL issued a new policy. Employees wouldn't get their matching 401K money until the end of each year. If you quit or are fired during the year, you won't get a 401K match at all for the year.

This would save the company money. He said that 2 women had difficult pregnancies in the last year, costing the company over one million dollars each, so they would have to save $$$ on 401Ks.

This came as they announced their best profits in many years, and Mr. President got a great bonus...12 million dollars pay.

It turns out that several big companies are trying to change their 401Ks too - this will obviously save them a lot of money.

The outcry was huge...the boss was shamed into changing back to a policy of contributing to employees' 401K on each payday.

Let's hear it for the workers who made this a PR fiasco and got this harebrained policy reversed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/aol-chief-reverses-changes-to-401k-policy-after-a-week-of-ba...

JaneMarple · ‎05-23-2011

I think it's great

Good luck on this thread.

You Don't Own Me- Leslie Gore
(You don't Know) How Glad I Am- Nancy Wilson

mgm2 · ‎09-15-2012

Deb1010again · ‎05-28-2013

That's GREAT news. I'd still be ticked if I was one of the women who had one of the two "distressed babies" that "cost a million dollars a piece". Since they probably have a self-funded healthcare plan, they get a report that aggregates their healthcare spending... doesn't identify who used what services. But it's not hard to figure out who had the difficult pregnancy or "distressed baby" that needed lots of extra care. I was so DISGUSTED that the AOL president disclosed that info and used it as justification for cutting benefits in another area.

I'm disabled and use more healthcare services than the average person and my husband's company has a self-funded medical plan. It makes me worry that if they singled me out as a high cost, they could conceivably get rid of him. It's a slippery slope.

terrier3 · ‎03-10-2010

Just imagine all the people they could fire or lay off around Christmas...saving themselves the 401K match!

That would be a very demoralized place to work! Especially with a boss making over 12 million a year, based on the company's fantastic 2013 results.

Perhaps some of that bonus should have been shared with the employees who created it.

betteb · ‎03-09-2010

It's God's job to judge the terrorists. It's our mission to arrange the meeting. U.S. Marines

mgm2 · ‎09-15-2012

On 2/8/2014 terrier3 said:
Just imagine all the people they could fire or lay off around Christmas...saving themselves the 401K match!

That would be a very demoralized place to work! Especially with a boss making over 12 million a year, based on the company's fantastic 2013 results.

Perhaps some of that bonus should have been shared with the employees who created it.

Cool

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

On 2/8/2014 Deb1010again said:
That's GREAT news. I'd still be ticked if I was one of the women who had one of the two "distressed babies" that "cost a million dollars a piece". Since they probably have a self-funded healthcare plan, they get a report that aggregates their healthcare spending... doesn't identify who used what services. But it's not hard to figure out who had the difficult pregnancy or "distressed baby" that needed lots of extra care. I was so DISGUSTED that the AOL president disclosed that info and used it as justification for cutting benefits in another area.

I'm disabled and use more healthcare services than the average person and my husband's company has a self-funded medical plan. It makes me worry that if they singled me out as a high cost, they could conceivably get rid of him. It's a slippery slope.

Good point, I thought the same thing. It wouldn't be hard to identify those women. Terrible invasion of their privacy. But not a financial burden for a company like that. There are other factors in play there. I suspect. I also wonder if the employees won the battle but will eventually lose the war. AOL could wait a year and just end the matching contribution. Many companies already have.