Nev. Supreme Court Ruling Beneficial to State Pensioners

A state workers’ union is praising a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that upheld claims of 40 former state employees who sought more pension credits because their jobs were privatized.

The State of Nevada Employees Association added that the high court’s 4-3 ruling last week, which went against Employers Insurance Co. of Nevada, makes EICON liable “for potentially several million dollars in back compensation.”

The state turned its workers’ compensation insurance agency into the private EICON in 1999, and the state workers who had worked at the agency became private-sector employees with no job security and reduced benefits, SNEA said.

Forty of those employees, backed by SNEA, sued when the new company wouldn’t help them purchase additional pension credits under a state law providing for such credits when an agency has to reduce its staffing.