2702 - State Safety Retirement (Historical View)

** Effective: 11/18/2016 4:16:09 PM - 11/21/2016 10:10:17 AM **

Status: Active

Change Notes

Policy Created.

Category

Retirement

Audience List

Synopsis

This policy:

Introduction

The state safety retirement membership was designed to recognize those state employees whose condition of employment requires public protective responsibilities and have regular and substantial contact with inmates or patients charged with a felony.  The state safety employees are not peace officers but do have certain public protection responsibilities.  In recognition of the duties, enhanced retirement benefits are provided to employees in classes or positions that meet state safety retirement criteria.

The purpose of this policy is to outline the retirement benefits and criteria used by CalHR to determine which classifications or positions are eligible for state safety retirement benefits.

Statement

State Safety Retirement Benefits

The major benefits of the state safety retirement membership include:

  1. Higher benefit formula (2.5 percent at age 55, 2 percent at age 55, or 2.7 percent at age 57).
  2. Earlier retirement age compared to state employees subject to the miscellaneous and industrial membership.
  3. Enhanced death and disability benefits.
  4. Employees and employers are exempt from paying Social Security tax.

Criteria for Determining Eligibility for State Safety Benefits

It is the policy of CalHR to apply the criteria specified in Government Code sections 19816.20 and 20405.1 to ensure state safety designation is only approved for employees in classes or positions that meet state safety criteria.

Criteria: In order to be eligible for state safety benefits, an employee in the class or position under consideration must meet all of the following criteria:

  1. The employee must have ongoing responsibility for:
    1. The protection and safeguarding of public and property; and
    2. The control or supervision of incarcerated individuals, or regular and substantial contact with incarcerated individuals;
  2. The employee must, as a condition of employment, be required to and capable of responding to emergency situations;
  3. The employee must provide a level of service to the public such that the safety of the public and of property is not jeopardized;
  4. The employee’s job specification and signed duty statement must clearly outline requirement that the employee has ongoing responsibility for the items listed in item #1, above;
  5. The employee’s job duties must be such that earlier retirement age is necessary to ensure the employee is capable of performing protective duties;
  6. The class or position is consistent with classes that have previously been determined by CalHR to meet the criteria outlined in this policy.

Definitions: The following definitions apply to the above criteria:

Exclusions: Classes or positions shall not be granted state safety benefits if the ongoing responsibilities include the following:

Requesting a State Safety Class or Position Designation

Departments, Unions, and CalHR Labor Relations staff must submit a state safety designation request as follows:

  1. Review the state safety membership criteria to determine if the class or position meets the requirements.
  2. Complete the “Retirement Designation Request” form and attach the supporting documents, if the class or position meets state safety criteria.
  3. Submit the package by either:

    1. Scanning and emailing the package to: RetirementRequests@calhr.ca.gov

    2. Mail/interagency/deliver to:
      CalHR, Personnel Management Division
      1515 S Street, North Building, Suite 500
      Sacramento, CA 95811

Approval of State Safety Designation

  1. If CalHR staff determines the class or position meets the state safety criteria, CalHR will send a written notice to the department, SCO, and CalPERS approving state safety designation.
  2. CalPERS then designates the class and moves the employees into the state safety retirement category.
  3. SCO will establish the class as state safety retirement in the transaction audit tables and sends a confirmation to the department’s personnel office and CalHR.
  4. Department will key in the class transactions without generating errors from SCO and CalPERS databases.
  5. All future employees hired into the state safety class will then be automatically placed in state safety retirement.

Denial

If the class or position doesn’t meet state safety criteria, CalHR will send a written denial notice to the department or requesting organization.

Note: Departments are not authorized to provide state safety designation for a class or position without CalHR approval.

Effective Date for State Safety Retirement Benefits

CalHR has no authority to approve requests on a retroactive basis.  The Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 prohibits all public employers from providing retroactive enhancements to a public employee’s retirement formula or benefits adopted on or after January 1, 2013, and cannot apply to any service performed prior to the effective date.  Please refer to Government Code section 7522.44.

Ongoing Reporting Responsibilities

CalHR and departmental staff must ensure the following ongoing reporting is conducted to ensure state employee retirement benefits are accurately reported to CalPERS.

Contacts

SCO Personnel/Payroll:  Phone: (916) 445-5361
Fax: (916) 322-6493

CalPERS: 888 CalPERS (or 888-225-7377)
TTY: (877) 249-7442
Fax: (800) 959-6545

 

 

Application

Departments should notify employees of changes to the state safety retirement eligibility or benefits upon receiving notice from CalHR.

Authorities

Resources

Forms

PML

Authorized By

Desi Rodrigues
Program Manager, Benefits Division

Contact Person

Desi Rodrigues
Program Manager, , Retirement Policy
Phone: 916-324-9400
Fax: 916-322-3769
Email: desi.rodrigues@calhr.ca.gov

Superseded Policies

Not Applicable.