[CORRECTED LINK] The question in this case is whether [ERISA section] 510 extends its protections to an employee's unsolicited, internal complaint to his employer that it has violated ERISA.... The Sixth Circuit has not yet had occasion to address the issue.... [T]he Court concludes that in this case Section 510 does not protect the plaintiff's unsolicited, internal complaint -- an email to his employer threatening to report its ERISA violations to state and federal authorities -- because it was unconnected to any 'inquiry or proceeding'.... A fuller explanation is that 'an employee's grievance is within Section 510's scope whether or not the employer solicited information,' provided that the employee himself solicited information. Without the asking for information, there is no 'inquiry'." [Sexton v. Panel Processing, Inc., No. 12-10946 (6th Cir. Oct. 30, 2012)]

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