AT&T - AT&T Long Lines Maternity Suit

8/15/2002


To: All AT&T Local Presidents

From: Martha Flagge, CWA Representative, C&T

Re: AT&T Long Lines Maternity Suit

As I have several inquiries on the status of the afore-mentioned lawsuit, I requested the most current information from the CWA Legal Department. The AT&T Long Lines Maternity Lawsuit is pending in California federal court. There has been no ruling yet on whether the case will be certified by the court as a class action, various legal issues affecting AT&T's ultimate liability are going to be determined before that occurs. A hearing is presently set to be heard in January on these issues. Of course, we have no way of knowing how the Court will rule on these
issues.

If there are employees who are getting ready to retire (or have very recently retired), they should send letters to the Benefit Committee asking to have their service credit adjusted to restore the time lost when they took their pre-1979 pregnancy leaves. The Legal Department is urging as many people as possible to do this regardless of which AT&T location they are (or were) working at. Attached is a sample letter, provided by the CWA Legal Department, that can be used for this purpose.

I do not have any specific information as to the legal issues that will be heard in January, however, should you have other questions, please don't hesitate to call our office and we will do
our best to provide you with additional information.
______________________________________________________

AT&T Pension Plan Administrator
East Tower, 8th Floor
1 Speedwell Avenue
Morristown, NJ 07962

Dear Plan Administrator:

I am an AT&T employee [or I recently retired from AT&T]. I was previously employed by [insert name of pre-divestiture employer]. My social security number is [insert]. When I transferred to AT&T, my service date was carried over for all employment-related purposes, including calculation of pension benefits.

When I worked for [insert name of pre-divestiture employer], I became pregnant. I did not receive credited service for all of the time I was off work during my pregnancy, due to the policies of the Bell System that were in place at that time. Even though I was medically disabled by pregnancy, I was not treated the same as other employees who experienced temporary medical disabilities. Instead, I was placed on a personal leave of absence and lost additional time even though I was able to work. I believe that recent court decisions, including Pallas v. Pacific Bell, et al., 940 F.2d 1324 (9th Cir. 1991), require AT&T to adjust my service date to include all time I was off work due to pregnancy-related reasons.

Please make the appropriate adjustment to my service date so that my pension benefits will be appropriately increased when I retire. [Or, if applicable, Please make the necessary adjustment to my monthly pension checks to reflect the increase resulting from adding this
service time.]

Please respond to this request in writing as soon as possible. Thank you.

Sincerely,