Workers claim company didn’t pay insurance premiums after unpaid medical claims
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Four employees have filed a lawsuit against related concrete coating companies, saying money was taken from their wages to pay for health benefits but wasn’t sent to a union health insurance fund to actually pay for medical coverage.
Two of the employees, identified as Ed Bates, who worked for Devening Block Inc., and Eric Gilpen, who worked for Horn Pre-Cast Inc., discovered that insurance premiums weren’t paid when their medical claims weren’t paid, the lawsuit says.
The suit, filed this month in Bartholomew County Superior Court against Horn Pre-Cast and Devening, both based in Columbus, contends the companies stopped making contributions to the Indiana Teamsters Health Benefits Fund in the second half of 2010.
Contributions stopped without notice being given to employees, and workers continued to believe their medical claims would be covered, the suit says.
The suit says Devening stopped sending payments to the Teamsters insurance fund after June 2010, and Horn stopped making payments after October that year. But money for insurance premiums continued to come out of the employees’ paychecks until late last year, according to the suit.
Other plaintiffs are listed in court filings as Carl Fivecoat and Wayne Thompson, both of whom are identified as having worked for Horn.
The suit seeks payment for medical bills, reimbursement of money withheld from the employees’ wages, plus triple and punitive damages. No total dollar amount is listed in the lawsuit.
Allegations made in a lawsuit are the opinion of the person filing it and may be refuted at trial.
Attorneys Thomas Mote of Columbus, who represents the concrete companies, and Geoffrey Lohman of Indianapolis, who represents the employees, could not be reached for comment
Tuesday.
Horn Pre-Cast and Devening Block have until Dec. 3 to file a written answer in court in connection with the case, court records show.
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