Providence Health & Services has agreed to pay $351.9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its employee-pension plan.

Two nurses filed the lawsuit in November 2014 against the Renton-based health-care system, which operates hospitals and health-care facilities in five Western states. They argued the health-care group failed to fully fund their workers’ retirement plan, depriving 73,000 employees of critical “protections designed to ensure their security in retirement,” according to the complaint filed in federal court in Seattle.

The case was built around a 1974 federal law called the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which regulates how private pension plans are funded. Providence , a Catholic health-care ministry, had argued it was exempt from the law, claiming church status.

While the case was continuing, a separate lawsuit on the same issue against another Catholic hospital chain made its way through the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and both sides in the Seattle case agreed to wait for the outcome on the other lawsuit. Ultimately, both a lower-court and an appeals court in the San Francisco case ruled that a health-care system could not claim church exemption (the U.S. Supreme Court may ultimately take up that case).

With the legal precedent set, Providence decided to pay up. It agreed to put $350 million into its employee retirement plan over the next seven years, starting in January. It will continue adding money afterward with the hope of fully funding the plan by 2029, according to a settlement agreement filed with the court last Thursday (Oct. 20), which requests a judge approve the deal.

In addition, Providence agreed to pay $500 each to about 3,800 nonvested former employees, for a total of $1.9 million, plus $6.5 million in fees to attorneys and others.

As part of the deal, Providence denied any wrongdoing.

The nurses, practitioners and other employees represented in the class action work across dozens of clinics and hospitals in Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Montana.

Neither Providence nor the attorney representing the workers responded to a request for comment late Wednesday.

Bloomberg reported that four similar cases have been settled recently, though for much smaller amounts.