April 13, 2026
AT&T Inc. has agreed to settle a proposed class action that aimed to represent 300,000 workers claiming it shorted employees on their pension payments by using outdated mortality data to calculate married couples’ benefits, according to a California federal court filing.
AT&T and the group of workers behind the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit filed a notice with the court Friday stating that they have struck a deal to end the dispute, and that they are in the process of finalizing terms. Details of the agreement have not been shared with the court.
The settlement would close the suit that the group of employees filed against AT&T in October 2020. ERISA requires that pension payments provided to single employees and married employees must be actuarially equivalent, but the workers claimed AT&T used mortality data that was 40 years old to convert the single life annuities to joint survivor annuities, which led to inaccurate payments.
. . .
The workers are represented by Kai Richter, Michelle C. Yau, Daniel J. Sutter and Caroline Bressman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC; Peter K. Stris, Victor O’Connell, John Stokes, Colleen R. Smith and Rachana A. Pathak of Stris & Maher LLP; Todd Jackson and Nina Wasow of Feinberg Jackson Worthman & Wasow LLP; and Shaun P. Martin of the University of San Diego Law School.
Read AT&T Strikes Deal to End Suit Over Pension Mortality Data.