J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. has agreed to pay $3.18 million to settle a proposed class action brought by employees who say they were overcharged for health insurance simply because they used tobacco products. The company, headquartered in Lowell, reached the deal in mediation with two workers who filed suit earlier this year over a $15 weekly surcharge tacked onto their premiums.
The lawsuit, filed in June in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, Fayetteville Division, was brought by Michael Barker and George Cross on behalf of themselves and other settlement class members who paid tobacco surcharges under the J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. Employee Benefits Plan, according to court documents cited by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The suit alleged the plan imposed the $15-per-week charge without providing a compliant reasonable alternative standard or the required notice in plan materials discussing the surcharge. Law360 reported the same underlying dispute, noting J.B. Hunt had struck a deal to settle claims that tobacco-using workers were wrongly charged the extra weekly fee for healthcare.
Court had not granted class action status in the case, according to court documents, when J.B. Hunt and the employees reached their settlement agreement in mediation. That agreement was documented in filings made in mid-September, and the company filed an unopposed motion for preliminary settlement approval on November 10. A separate Law360 report pegged the settlement figure at roughly $3.2 million, consistent with the $3.18 million sum cited in the court filings.
A Federal Rule at the Center of the Dispute
Federal regulations addressing workplace wellness programs specifically contemplate situations like the one described in the lawsuit. Under 29 CFR 2590.702, references to a plan providing a reward include imposing a penalty, such as a surcharge or another financial or nonfinancial disincentive — language that frames how tobacco surcharges are treated under federal wellness-program rules governing group health plans…