Business always complains about costs, though they always find the cash to shovel over millions for incompetent leaders. For a few decades, the balance has been swinging heavily in their favor at the expense of employees. Laws originally written to protect employee benefits is increasingly being used by employers to get around death benefits. Congress could do something about this and if they were looking for examples of "the system gone bad" they need not continue their search.
Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.
"He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.
But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.
Main & gay blog