Leidos Sued Over Tobacco Penalty Charged by Health-Care Plan (1)

Leidos Inc. was hit with a proposed class action by a former employee accusing the information technology services company of wrongly charging extra health plan fees to workers who smoke.

The Oct. 31 lawsuit takes aim at the company’s practice of charging about $600 more per year to tobacco-using employees covered by its health plan. Leidos charges these amounts without giving workers a legally compliant avenue for receiving retroactive reimbursement of penalties they’ve already paid, which plaintiff Jennifer Walker says flouts the non-discrimination rules of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Federal law allows employer-sponsored health plans to charge workers ...