Orr issues stay on freezing pensions for Detroit workers as mediation continues

The Detroit Free Press reports:

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr said today that he’s stayed a pension freeze he ordered late last month, allowing negotiators with both city pension plans to continue mediation in federal bankruptcy court over how to resolve what he says is $3.5 billion in pension underfunding.

Orr, growing impatient with a lack of progress in mediated talks between the city and pension plan representatives, quietly issued a freeze on the pensions of city workers in the General Retirement System as of Dec. 31, meaning no new benefits would be accrued and the plan would be closed to new city employees.

But today, Orr said he was delaying the freeze indefinitely, while reserving the right to reinstate it if mediation efforts don’t reach an acceptable compromise.

History in the making.