Abbott Labs and Hospira might have taken illegal actions to terminate retirement and medical benefits of employees of Abbott's Hospital Products Division when it spun it into a new company named Hospira.

Investigation and pending class action against Abbott Labs and Hospira Inc. on behalf of employees of Abbott Lab's Hospital Products Division.

The class action lawsuit alleges that during a spin off of Hospital Products Division into a new company called Hospira, Abbott Labs terminated employees of Hospital Products Division to prevent these employees from receiving employment benefits.

The class action complaint also allege that Abbott and Hospira adopted no-hire policies that prevented employees from transferring between the two companies for at least two years. These policies, according to the class action complaint, also interfere with the rights of Hospital Products Division employees to receive employment benefits and, therefore, violate Section 510 of ERISA. The class action complaint also claim that even before the spin-off, Abbott knew, but failed to inform employees who were targeted to be spun off, that Hospira would freeze pension plan benefits and would not offer retirement medical benefits. By making misrepresentations about future benefits and by failing to disclose what it knew, Abbott breached fiduciary duties imposed under ERISA.