Opinion ID: 269384
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retirees

Text: 12 The alleged retirees are 72 strikers each of whom had applied for and received pension benefits under the Company's plan before the end of the strike. There was no mandatory retirement age, and Kohler did not seek applications for retirement benefits. Employees filed forms prominently headed 'Notice of Retirement.' Kohler claimed that filing such a form was an unequivocal act of withdrawal from employment, foreclosing reinstatement rights. The Board contended that the forms were signed under economic duress, rather than with real intent to retire, and that the named workers had not intended to give up their employment and, in some cases at least, had so informed the Company. 13 The Master upheld Kohler's claim. Although Kohler's group insurance contract does not restrict pension rights to persons who have actually retired, and Kohler had no mandatory retirement age, the Master found a 'practical construction' of the contract required the conclusion that retirement had occurred. This implies that, even if a claim of pension rights was induced by economic straits brought on by the strike, the claimant must have understood that he was retiring from Kohler's employ. 14 We think the record does not support the Master's conclusion. Consideration must be given to the possibility of economic duress and to the apparent fact that neither Kohler nor the insurance company would have suffered added expense were the pensioners allowed to return to work. As in the case of the releasees, a determination of intent need not rest on pitting the claimant's memory now against the form he signed then. It is alleged that certain retirees informed Kohler of their intent. There may be others who made individual efforts to return to work at the strike's end. The Union's application for reinstatement named less than one-third of the strikers who had retired during the course of the strike. This suggests that further evidence might be found in its files. It is possible that workers older than the normal retirement age of sixty-five at the close of the strike would have declined reinstatement offers for reasons of age, even if age was not behind their elections to receive pension funds at earlier dates. Consequently, it would be appropriate for the Master to require a strong showing of availability for work in these cases. But we think an attempt must be made, on a case-by-case basis, to determine whether any of the 72 retirees had intended to retain their status as 'striking employees.' If so, they were entitled to reinstatement.