HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1894        FILED ON: 1/15/2015

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3487

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Carole A. Fiola

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to accelerate state employee replacement.

_______________

PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 1894        FILED ON: 1/15/2015

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3487

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth General Court
(2015-2016)

_______________

An Act to accelerate state employee replacement.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. (a) Notwithstanding chapter 32 of the general laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, the state board of retirement, established under section 18 of chapter 10 of the general laws, shall establish and implement a retirement incentive for state employees, hereinafter referred to as the state employee replacement program, in accordance with this act.

(b) In order to be deemed eligible by the state board of retirement for any of the benefit options under the state employee replacement program, an employee: (i) shall be a member in active service of the state retirement system on the effective date of this act; (ii) shall have attained 20 years or more of creditable service as defined in section 1 of chapter 32 of the general laws on the effective date of this act; and (iii); shall have filed a written application with the board in accordance with this act.

(c) An employee who retires and receives an additional benefit in accordance with this act shall be deemed to be retired for superannuation under said chapter 32 and shall be subject to all of said chapter 32.

(d) Words used in this act shall have the same meaning as when they are used in said chapter 32 unless otherwise expressly provided or the context clearly requires otherwise.

SECTION 2. (a) Notwithstanding section 5 of chapter 32 of the general laws, in order to receive the retirement benefit provided by this act, an eligible employee, except as otherwise provided in this act, shall file his or her application for retirement with the state board of retirement on or after July 1, 2015 and not later than June 30, 2017, hereinafter referred to as the open period. An employee electing to retire under this act shall notify his or her immediate supervisor or organization designee, 1 month prior to his or her retirement date, of his or her impending retirement.

(b) An eligible state employee may make an advance payment to the state retirement system in an amount equal to his or her current annual contribution to the state retirement system.  The advance payment must be a minimum amount equal to one year of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system but not more than three years of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system.  An advance payment may be made any time from the first day of the open period through a date 1 month before the last day of the open period in subsection (a). An employee may make an advance payment in one amount or in interim amounts. An employee may make an advance payment in interim amounts through payroll withholding deductions. An employee may not make an advance payment before or after the dates constituting the open period in said subsection (a).

(c) Notwithstanding chapter 32 of the General Laws or any other general or special law to the contrary, an employee electing to make advance payments shall, prior to making the first such payment,  elects to retire no later than the last date of the open period in said subsection (a). An employee electing to make advance payments by payroll withholding shall, prior to the first of such withholding, make an irrevocable election to retire no later than the last date of the open period in said subsection (a).

(d) Eligibility of an employee to participate in this incentive program may be revoked by the prior to the close of the open period for various reasons, including but not limited to: failure of an employee to retire before the close of the open period, termination of employment before the close of the open period, failure to make the minimum advance payment amount described above, termination of employment for cause prior to the close of the open period, the employee’s death.  Revocation will result in any amount of the advance payment being refunded and the employee will not receive the benefits described above.

(e) If a participating employee, upon retiring before the close of the open period has made an advance payment that is more than one year of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system but less than two years of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system, the part of such advance payment in excess of one year of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system, shall be refunded and he or she shall add one year to his or her eligible age and creditable service factors, used to compute retirement benefits.  If a participating employee, upon retiring before the close of the open period has made an advance payment that is more than two years of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system but less than three years of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system, the part of such advance payment in excess of two years of his or her current annual contributions to the state retirement system, shall be refunded and he or she shall add two years to his or her eligible age and creditable service factors, used to compute retirement benefits. 

SECTION 3. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the state board of retirement shall, no more than 30 days after the passage of this act, inform all current employees who have 20 years or more of creditable service under chapter 32 of the general laws, of the state employee retirement incentive program.  No more than 45 days after the passage of this act, the board shall survey each employee for interest in the program.  The board shall provide each state agency, as defined in section 1 of chapter 29, with the names of all current employees of each such agency who have 20 years or more of creditable service.  The board shall also provide each agency with the results of its survey. Upon receipt of the survey by the state board of retirement pursuant to this act, each state agency shall begin recruiting replacement employees in advance of experiencing retired employees.

(b) For employees who choose to consider retiring or who choose to retire pursuant to this act, the board shall provide retirement counseling.  Such counseling shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (i) a full explanation of the retirement benefits provided by this act; (ii) a comparison of the expected lifetime retirement benefits payable to the employee under the retirement incentive program and under the existing chapter 32 of the general laws; (iii) the election of a retirement option under section 12 of said chapter 32; (iv) the restrictions on employment after retirement; (v) the laws relative to the payment of cost-of-living adjustments to the retirement allowance; and (vi) the effect of federal and state taxation on retirement income. The group insurance commission shall provide counseling about the provision of health care benefits under chapter 32A of the general laws. Each such employee shall sign a statement that he has received the counseling or that he or she does not want to receive the counseling prior to the approval by the state board of retirement of such employee's application for superannuation benefits and the additional benefit provided by this act.

SECTION 4. Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, each state agency, as defined in section 1 of chapter 29 of the general laws shall, immediately upon being advised of the date it will experience an employee retiring under this act, initiate a process to replace such employee. Replacement of retired employees shall be completed within 6 months after the retired employee departs. Replacement employees shall be hired into the same civil service position of the retired employee but at the entry level.  For the purposes of this act, the term entry level shall mean a position having a title which is the lowest in a series of titles in the state classification plan

SECTION 5. The secretary of administration and finance shall list each position made vacant by the retirement of an employee from a state agency pursuant to this act and shall file such list with the house and senate committees on ways and means and the comptroller not later than October 15, 2017 and shall supplement the list as may be deemed necessary through June 30, 2018. For each such position, the list shall include the item of appropriation in which the position is funded, the name of the state agency which is funded by such item, the classification title of the position, the salary range for the title and the salary payable to the person who retired from the position. The list and any supplements shall indicate which of these positions were refilled, the date on which they were refilled and the annual salary of each refilled position.