St. Louis, October 28--A federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday indefinitely blocked Solutia Inc. from changing its retirement benefits as part of the chemical concern's bid to save $5 million a year when it emerges from bankruptcy.
The revisions would have increased retirees' co-payments, affected coverage limits and substituted the existing health-care plan with a cafeteria-style one, said Daniel Doyle, a St. Louis attorney for a panel of retirees.
Doyle said the changes, which were due to take effect Jan. 1, would have changed benefits of about 6,000 retirees and their dependents who aren't yet eligible for Medicare.
Dan Jenkins, a spokesman for St. Louis-based Solutia, did not comment on the ruling other than to say the company had believed it did not need court approval to make the changes.
But the retirees' panel -- representing some 25,000 former employees of Solutia and corporate predecessor Monsanto Co., as well as their spouses and dependents -- objected, then argued the matter Sept. 28 before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Prudence Carter Beatty of New York.
Beatty ruled the planned changes warranted court review.
Separately, Beatty agreed to let the retirees' group also represent seven trade unions.
In seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last December, Solutia cited its struggles under heavy financial obligations assigned to it when it was spun off by Monsanto as a separate company in 1997.
Solutia makes nylon products, films for laminated safety glass and aftermarket, water-treatment chemicals, heat-transfer fluids and aviation hydraulic fluid.
