The Bills "have suspended pension plan payments to all employees -- including coaches -- during the NFL lockout and potentially the rest of the year, in addition to across-the-board paycuts that had been previously announced," according to John Wawrow of the AP. Bills CEO Russ Brandon in an e-mail confirmed that the Bills "had stopped paying into the 401K plan for the duration of the lockout and 'will decide at a later date whether to reinstate them for 2011 based on our financial performance.'" Brandon said that all employees had been "notified early on that the plan was being amended so that all team contributions would be discretionary for this year." The Bills "had already announced in March that while no layoffs were planned, all employees would take a paycut during a work stoppage as part of a series of cuts that focused on what the team called 'shared sacrifice.'" NFL Coaches Association Exec Dir Larry Kennan said that "to his knowledge, the Bills are the first NFL franchise to suspend pension payments for its coaches." The Bills in '09 were "one of a handful of NFL teams to opt out of the league's pension plan to create" their own after owners "voted to make the existing supplemental retirement plan non-mandatory for the clubs" (AP, 5/24).
OFF THE CHOPPING BLOCK: In Dallas, Jean-Jacques Taylor notes Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones has refused to "cut the pay of the assistant coaches, scouting department, public relations department and ticket office during the NFL lockout." But throughout the NFL, team owners are "docking their employees 10-25 percent of their salaries." The Lions "just announced two-week furloughs," and the Raiders "want their employees to help sell tickets for a season no one knows will begin to stave off salary cuts." Taylor: "Those making their employees pay the price for their desire to make more money should be criminal. Jerry hasn't done that. For that, he should receive a hand clap" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 5/25).
