Remington Arms Just Failed to Pay Over $9 Million in Pension Payments

Former employees of the Remington Outdoor Company received an alarming notice in their mail this week, with bad news about their pension.

Remington Outdoor, now referred to as "Old Remington," is the company that owned and operated Remington over the last 10 years, and recently filed for bankruptcy which resulted in the liquidation of all of their assets.

The memo, labeled "Notice of Remington's Failure to Make Pension Contribution Installments," explained that the former owner of the gunmaker, missed at least two payments in January.

"Specifically, Remington did not make contribution installments of $8,175,356 and $1,314,860, plus accrued interest that were due by January 1, 2021 and January 15, 2021, respectively," the memo explained.

WIBX obtained a copy of the memo (seen below) was simply a statement to the former employees "providing them notice" that the payments had not been made. There was no explanation or additional information given in the short memo.

Remington Outdoor Company filed bankruptcy in 2020 and their holdings and property were sold off to six different companies in bankruptcy court. Roundhill Group purchased the assets of the gun making portion of Remington, including the original plant located in Ilion, NY. As part of the sale, Remington Outdoor would remain responsible for the pensions of those employees who retired prior to the sale. Recently, the employees union has been negotiating with Remington Outdoor on the dispersement of 401K funds, vacation pay, and other benefits.

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Retired employees receiving pension benefits should not have their pension eliminated by Remington's inability to continue playing into the pension fund, because of a government agency that guarantees a portion or all of the worker pensions.  "It's called PBGC, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation," said Rob Hilton of Hilton Estate and Elder Law in Utica. "It's a government-run corporation which takes over when a company's pension goes under."

A former employee told WIBX that it's believed the memo that was sent out was officially notifying all parties involved that Remington Outdoor was officially "out of business" and unable to make pension payments to retired workers. The notification would allow for government protections to be activated, which will ultimately guarantee the pension fund at some level.