Under the Uniformed Servicemembers Employment and Reemployment Act (“USERRA”) employers are required to provide pension contributions to employees for periods of military leave. The Complaint alleges that Sun Country failed to make those contributions and/or adopted a policy or practice contrary to the terms of the Sun Country, Inc. 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan (“the Plan”), in which employees were not properly credited for periods of military leave with respect to their Plan accounts.

The Complaint alleges that the fiduciaries of the Sun Country, Inc. 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan (“the Plan”) – namely Sun Country and the Board of Trustees -- adopted a policy or practice contrary to the terms of the Plan by which employees were not properly credited for periods of military leave with respect to their Plan accounts. By doing so, the Complaint alleges that the fiduciaries of the Plan breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) in failing to following a practice contrary to the terms of the Plan, failing to remedy any violations of the Plan, and failing to monitor and properly direct the Trustee of the Plan with respect to its management of the Plan.

The Complaint seeks a determination of the rights of Plaintiffs and the Class under USERRA, payment of the pension contributions for military service in the Plan under USERRA and/or ERISA, and under ERISA, recovery of the Plan’s losses, and an imposition of a surcharge against the fiduciaries of the Plan. Plaintiffs also seek recovery of monies for the Plan that should have been allocated to class members’ accounts and an award of attorneys’ fees and costs.

This lawsuit is brought on behalf of the following Class:

(a) All current and former Sun Country, Inc. employees who are or were participants in the Sun Country, Inc. 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan and:

(1) who, after becoming a Sun Country, Inc. employee, completed a period of qualified military service that ended on or after July 21, 2011;

(2) who did not receive a pension contribution to the Plan for a period of qualified military service that was either

(A) if the employee’s rate was reasonably certain, at the rate the employee would have received but for the period of military service, or

(B) if the employee’s rate is not reasonably certain, on the basis of the employee’s average rate of compensation during the 12-month period immediately preceding the qualified military leave (or, if shorter, the period of employment immediately preceding the period of qualified military service), and;

(b) All beneficiaries of the participants described in (a).

Excluded from the Class are the following persons: (a) former or current employees who previously reached settlements with or judgments against Sun Country resolving or releasing any claims arising during the Class Period under USERRA and/or ERISA related to inadequate pension contributions for periods of military leave; and (b) any person who served as a fiduciary of the Plan and their beneficiaries under the Plan and any member of the immediate family of and any heirs, successors or assigns of any such person.

On February 27, 2024, Plaintiff filed the Class Action Complaint. Defendants have not yet answered or responded to the Complaint.

Class Action Complaint - February 27, 2024

“Pilots Say Airline Shorted Servicemembers’ 401(k) Funds” Law360