AOL does something like $2 billion in revenue per year. This cost would have been a fraction of one tenth of one percent of revenue. What. a. shithead.
It's a tradeoff, and morally it looks like the right one to me. Pay less to people who left to the company so you can continue paying more in health benefits to those who remain.
That was the choice being made here.
However it's their right to make it. If they want to run their company into the ground like that, why not.
From WaPo:
"In other words, employees will have to stay through the end of the year to get the match, and then the contribution won't even come during 2014. In a year like last year, where the stock market was roaring, the difference for an employee who left in December could amount to thousands of dollars in pay and added savings."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/02/04/a...