Situation a friend is in.

Some may recall the thread nearly a year ago about the employer deducting 401k from paychecks but not putting it in employee accounts. Employer is likely upset that they are now in the middle of a DOL investigation and they're trying to stick it to the employees that reported it.

Employer offers matching 401k contributions that become fully vested after 5 years. I saw it written in the book. The employees have mostly all been with the company for around 5-1/2 years (employer won large contract and hired many employees at the same time). Employees that are still missing 401k money's threatened to quit, employer said no problem, you forfeit your vesting if you quit before 6 yrs. Employees called them out and employer said, oops, we wrote it wrong in the handbook, you aren't vested until 6 years. If you quit now we get to keep our portion that we matched.

That sounds like more of the same BS by a crummy employer.

Not a real bright employer if you ask me.

Affected employee(s) need to take company's written vesting policy along with their 401k statement (which should clearly show them fully vested) to an attorney.

LOL. How many ways can this employer screw the pooch?

No, they can't unilaterally change vesting.  Friend needs to gather evidence and  add that in to the report to DOL and if negative action is taken against him, lawyer up.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/change-in-plan-vesting-schedules

The short answer is yes the ER can change the vesting rules however they cant take back already vested amounts.

Plus the plan document is not some living document that the ER can just change whenever they want.  It must follow IRS rules.

Nothing motivates employees to perform quality work like stealing their money...

Unless your friend is working for Too Big To Fail, your friend should find a new job.  This one isn't going to be around very long.

He is moving on but is now being "punished" for it.

The DOL has forced them to repay the stolen money but it's not very favorable to the employee. Over the course of 14 weeks the employer stole that money and now they get 1 month to repay each week's money. IE, they have a payment plan where the money will not be fully repaid to the accounts until 14 months from settlement date.

ETA, I talked to my buddy. He said the employer claims, "The vesting has always been 6 years, we just mis-represented it in the handbook. This was not a change to the vesting."

In the employee's eyes it is a change because it's not what they were told when they hired on and it's not what is in the hand-book. So what actually constitutes a change? I would think a good lawyer could effectively argue that a change in representation constitutes a change. Would a judge see it that way, and would the monetary gains be worth the lawyer fees?

You can't take what's already vested.  He should look at the plan docs as well as the handbook.

There will be actual Plan documentation somewhere. Statements, employment contracts, etc... not just someminformal “employee handbook”.

How is the Bill of Rights doing?

That.

I'm 99% sure the website for the current job and last 2 had it very clear on the website that I used to check my balances.

So... assuming it's through ADP or Fidelity or someone similar, what's it say there?

Sort of related.

I worked for a start-up, and had a fair amount of stock when I signed up, and more at annual reviews.
As it vested, I bought it.

The day came when a large company (investment company) came along and decided to buy them.
They priced the company based upon the current estimated value of the stock. Of course, the founders had most of it, and their share value was in the millions.

This company wanted to own 100% of the stock, so used the clause in the stock agreement that the company could buy back the stock at current value before an IPO.
The owners pretty much insisted that all employees needed to get something out of the deal, so they said they would pay for all options, vested or not, purchased or not.
That way everyone would walk away with some money.

Everyone, that is, except those of us that actually had all our options vested and had purchased them.

We basically got our money back.

Wasn't cheating, but it felt like it.