H. B. 2096
(By Delegate Ellem)
[Introduced January 10, 2003; referred to the
Committee on Pensions and Retirement then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section fourteen, article ten, chapter
five of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, relating to removing the requirement
that in order to receive a retroactive service credit for
members of the public employees retirement system who
previously worked in CETA that the members pay the board an
amount equal to the employer contribution in addition to an
amount equal to the employee contribution.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fourteen, article ten, chapter five of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-14. Service credit; retroactive provisions.
(a) The board of trustees shall credit each member with the prior service and contributing service to which he or she is
entitled based upon rules adopted by the board of trustees and
based upon the following:
(1) In no event may less than ten days of service rendered by
a member in any calendar month be credited as a month of service:
Provided, That for employees of the state Legislature whose term of
employment is otherwise classified as temporary and who are
employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its
regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions and
who have been or are so employed during regular sessions or during
the interim between regular sessions in seven consecutive calendar
years, service credit of one month shall be awarded for each ten
days employed in the interim between regular sessions, which
interim days shall be cumulatively calculated so that any ten days,
regardless of calendar month or year, shall be calculated toward
any award of one month of service credit;
(2) Except for hourly employees, ten or more months of service
credit earned in any calendar year shall be credited as a year of
service: Provided, That no more than one year of service may be
credited to any member for all service rendered by him or her in
any calendar year and no days may be carried over by a member from
one calendar year to another calendar year where the member has
received a full-year credit for that year; and
(3) Service may be credited to a member who was employed by a political subdivision if his or her employment occurred within a
period of thirty years immediately preceding the date the political
subdivision became a participating public employer.
(b) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to
employees of boards of health, the clerk of the House of Delegates
and the clerk of the state Senate, or to any former and present
member of the state teachers retirement system who have been
contributing members for more than three years, for service
previously credited by the state teachers retirement system and
shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the
system and shall also require a deposit, with interest, of any
withdrawals of contributions any time prior to the member's
retirement. Repayment of withdrawals shall be as directed by the
board of trustees.
(c) Court reporters who are acting in an official capacity,
although paid by funds other than the county commission or state
auditor, may receive prior service credit for time served in that
capacity.
(d) Active members who previously worked in CETA
(Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) may receive service
credit for time served in that capacity: Provided, That in order
to receive service credit under the provisions of this subsection
the following conditions must be met: (1) The member must have
moved from temporary employment with the participating employer to permanent full-time employment with the participating employer
within one hundred twenty days following the termination of the
member's CETA employment; (2) the board must receive evidence that
establishes to a reasonable degree of certainty as determined by
the board that the member previously worked in CETA; and (3) the
member shall pay to the board an amount equal to the employer and
employee contribution plus interest at the amount set by the board
for the amount of service credit sought pursuant to this
subsection: Provided, however, That the maximum service credit
that may be obtained under the provisions of this subsection is two
years: Provided further, That a member must apply and pay for the
service credit allowed under this subsection and provide all
necessary documentation by the thirty-first day of March, two
thousand three: And provided further, That the board shall
exercise due diligence to notify affected employees of the
provisions of this subsection.
(e) Employees of the state Legislature whose terms of
employment are otherwise classified as temporary and who are
employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its
regular sessions or during the interim time between regular
sessions shall receive service credit for the time served in that
capacity in accordance with the following. For purposes of this
section, the term "regular session" means day one through day sixty
of a sixty-day legislative session or day one through day thirty of a thirty-day legislative session. Employees of the state
Legislature whose term of employment is otherwise classified as
temporary and who are employed to perform services required by the
Legislature for its regular sessions or during the interim time
between regular sessions and who have been or are employed during
regular sessions or during the interim time between regular
sessions in seven consecutive calendar years, as certified by the
clerk of the houses in which the employee served, shall receive
service credit of six months for all regular sessions served, as
certified by the clerk of the houses in which the employee served,
or shall receive service credit of three months for each regular
thirty-day session served prior to one thousand nine hundred
seventy-one: Provided, That employees of the state Legislature
whose term of employment is otherwise classified as temporary and
who are employed to perform services required by the Legislature
for its regular sessions and who have been or are employed during
the regular sessions in thirteen consecutive calendar years as
either temporary employees or full-time employees or a combination
thereof, as certified by the clerk of the houses in which the
employee served, shall receive a service credit of twelve months
for each regular session served, as certified by the clerk of the
houses in which the employee served: Provided, however, That the
amendments made to this subsection during the two thousand two
regular session of the Legislature only apply to employees of the Legislature who are employed by the Legislature as either temporary
employees or full-time employees as of the first day of January,
two thousand two or who become employed by the Legislature as
temporary or full-time employees for the first time after the first
day of January, two thousand two. Employees of the state
Legislature whose terms of employment are otherwise classified as
temporary and who are employed to perform services required by the
Legislature during the interim time between regular sessions shall
receive service credit of one month for each ten days served during
the interim between regular sessions, which interim days shall be
cumulatively calculated so that any ten days, regardless of
calendar month or year, shall be calculated toward any award of one
month of service credit: Provided further, That no more than one
year of service may be credited to any temporary legislative
employee for all service rendered by that employee in any calendar
year and no days may be carried over by a temporary legislative
employee from one calendar year to another calendar year where the
member has received a full year credit for that year. Service
credit awarded for legislative employment pursuant to this section
shall be used for the purpose of calculating that member's
retirement annuity, pursuant to section twenty-two of this article,
and determining eligibility as it relates to credited service,
notwithstanding any other provision of this section. Certification
of employment for a complete legislative session and for interim days shall be determined by the clerk of the houses in which the
employee served, based upon employment records. Service of
fifty-five days of a regular session constitutes an absolute
presumption of service for a complete legislative session and
service of twenty-seven days of a thirty-day regular session
occurring prior to one thousand nine hundred seventy-one
constitutes an absolute presumption of service for a complete
legislative session. Once a legislative employee has been employed
during regular sessions for seven consecutive years or has become
a full-time employee of the Legislature, that employee shall
receive the service credit provided in this section for all regular
and interim sessions and interim days worked by that employee, as
certified by the clerk of the houses in which the employee served,
regardless of when the session or interim legislative employment
occurred: And provided further, That regular session legislative
employment for seven consecutive years may be served in either or
both houses of the Legislature.
(f) Any employee may purchase retroactive service credit for
periods of employment in which contributions were not deducted from
the employee's pay. In the purchase of service credit for
employment prior to the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine
in any department, including the Legislature, which operated from
the general revenue fund and which was not expressly excluded from
budget appropriations in which blanket appropriations were made for the state's share of public employees' retirement coverage in the
years prior to the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine, the
employee shall pay the employee's share. Other employees shall pay
the state's share and the employee's share to purchase retroactive
service credit. Where an employee purchases service credit for
employment which occurred after the year one thousand nine hundred
eighty-eight, that employee shall pay for the employee's share and
the employer shall pay its share for the purchase of retroactive
service credit: Provided, That no legislative employee and no
current or former member of the Legislature may be required to pay
any interest or penalty upon the purchase of retroactive service
credit in accordance with the provisions of this section where the
employee was not eligible to become a member during the years he or
she is purchasing retroactive credit for or had the employee
attempted to contribute to the system during the years he or she is
purchasing retroactive service credit for and such contributions
would have been refused by the board: Provided, however, That a
legislative employee purchasing retroactive credit under this
section does so within twenty-four months of becoming a member of
the system or no later than the last day of December, two thousand
five, whichever occurs last: Provided further, That once a
legislative employee becomes a member of the retirement system, he
or she may purchase retroactive service credit for any time he or
she was employed by the Legislature and did not receive service credit. Any service credit purchased shall be credited as six
months for each sixty-day session worked, three months for each
thirty-day session worked or twelve months for each sixty-day
session for legislative employees who have been employed during
regular sessions in thirteen consecutive calendar years, as
certified by the clerk of the houses in which the employee served,
and credit for interim employment as provided in this subsection:
And provided further, That this legislative service credit shall
also be used for months of service in order to meet the sixty-month
requirement for the payments of a temporary legislative employee
member's retirement annuity: And provided further, That no
legislative employee may be required to pay for any service credit
beyond the actual time he or she worked regardless of the service
credit which is credited to him or her pursuant to this section:
And provided further, That any legislative employee may request a
recalculation of his or her credited service to comply with the
provisions of this section at any time.
(g) Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the seven
consecutive calendar years requirement and the thirteen consecutive
calendar years requirement and the service credit requirements set
forth in this section shall be applied retroactively to all periods
of legislative employment prior to the passage of this section,
including any periods of legislative employment occurring before
the seven and thirteen consecutive calendar years referenced in this section: Provided, That the employee has not retired prior to
the effective date of the amendments made to this section in the
two thousand two regular session of the Legislature.
(h) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to any
former or present member of the state police death, disability and
retirement fund who has been a contributing member of this system
for more than three years for service previously credited by the
state police death, disability and retirement fund if the member
transfers all of his or her contributions to the state police
death, disability and retirement fund to the system created in this
article, including repayment of any amounts withdrawn any time from
the state police death, disability and retirement fund by the
member seeking the transfer allowed in this subsection: Provided,
That there shall be added by the member to the amounts transferred
or repaid under this subsection an amount which shall be sufficient
to equal the contributions he or she would have made had the member
been under the public employees retirement system during the period
of his or her membership in the state police death, disability and
retirement fund plus interest at a rate determined by the board.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
remove the requirement
that in order to receive a retroactive service credit for members
of the public employees retirement system who previously worked in
CETA that the members pay the board an amount equal to the employer
contribution in addition to an amount equal to the employee
contribution.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.