Senate Bill No. 532
(By Senators Love, Minard and Dempsey)
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[Introduced March 14, 2005; referred to the Committee
on Pensions; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §5-10-15a of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to allowing state employees who
were unable to convert accumulated sick leave into credited
service for retirement, due to having to use it during times
of illness, to have the option to purchase it back by having
withholdings taken from future pay.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §5-10-15a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 10. WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT ACT.
§5-10-15a. Retirement credited service through member's use, as
option, of accrued annual or sick leave days.
(a) Any member accruing annual leave or sick leave days may,
after the effective date of this section, elect to use such days at
the time of retirement to acquire additional credited service in
this retirement system. Such days shall be applied on the basis of
two workdays credit granted for each one day of such accrued annual or sick leave days, with each month of retirement service credit to
equal twenty workdays and with any remainder of ten workdays or
more to constitute a full month of additional credit and any
remainder of less than ten workdays to be dropped and not used,
notwithstanding any provisions of the code to the contrary,
including section twelve, article sixteen of this chapter. Such
credited service shall be allowed and not deemed to controvert the
requirement of no more than twelve months credited service in any
year's period.
(b) In the event a member is unable to convert accrued annual
or sick leave as the result of the necessity of having to utilize
same during times of illness, he or she shall have the option to
purchase the lost leave with a monthly withholding to be deducted
from future pay. The Board of Trustees shall propose rules for
legislative approval, in accordance with the provisions of article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, designed to effectuate
the provisions of this subsection.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
allow state employees
that were unable to convert accumulated sick leave into credited
service for retirement, due to having to use it during times of
illness, to have the option to purchase it back by having
withholdings taken from future pay.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.