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A lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Thursday claiming NV Energy has violated labor contracts by failing to provide certain retirees with all the health care benefits due them.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada.
It seeks to represent all former employees of NV Energy and their spouses who were represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 and were eligible to have 100 percent or 80 percent of their retiree health benefit premiums paid by NV Energy, "but as to whom NV Energy has frozen retiree health benefits at 2009 levels."
"NV Energy promised plaintiffs and other retirees that it would pay either 100 percent or 80 percent of their retiree health benefit premiums for life," the lawsuit says.
But now, the suit says, "NV Energy has refused to pay for any premiums that exceeded the benefit paid in 2009, forcing retirees to pay much higher amounts for their health care benefits than they previously did or requiring them to pay for benefits which NV Energy previously promised to cover in full."
"The retirees, many of whom live on fixed incomes, are and will be unable to pay these costs, or will be able to pay them only by forgoing other essentials," says the suit.
An NV Energy spokeswoman said the company couldn’t comment on the suit, which was announced by the union group running the “Shame on NV Energy” advertising campaign.