Bassiri

The district court determined that the provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) apply to Xerox’s Long-Term Disability Plan (“LTD Plan”) because the plan pays only 60% of Appellant Ali Bassiri’s usual salary. Bas-siri challenges that determination. The district court certified this issue for interlocutory appeal, and we thus have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292 (b). We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I. Factual Background

Ali Bassiri was a permanent employee of Xerox Corporation from 1997 to 2002. While employed at Xerox, Bassiri was eligible for short-term disability benefits, and he was enrolled in the Xerox LTD Plan and a Prudential Disability Income Plan. The three plans provided full coverage in the event of a disability: (1) for the first five months of his disability, Bassiri would be paid full salary under the Xerox short-term disability plan; (2) for the next twenty-four months, Bassiri would be paid 60% salary under the Xerox LTD Plan; and (3) any remaining disability period would be covered under the extended Prudential policy. Under the terms of the LTD plan, payments lasted only as long as the recipient was a full-time…