Reply #2: It all depends on how the plan was originally written

[MiniMe]

The way they write 401k plans, the match is not usually written into the plan, it is written as a discretionary match. Almost every plan is written that way, I found out about it when a company I was working for changed 401k administrators and they wrote a new plan up. The plan itself is to protect the companies, not to protect the workers. The codes on what constitutes a 401k is and how the contributions can be made are what protect the workers.

I am not defending what the companies you mentioned did at all, just pointing out what I have seen about how they write the plans themselves from what I have seen.