Report Title:

Employees' Retirement System (ERS); University of Hawaii (UH) employees

Description:

Allows a faculty member, lecturer, and administrative, professional, and technical employee of UH with multiple part-time appointments or positions to meet eligibility requirements for membership in the ERS; allows for the implementation of an optional retirement plan for UH. (SB62 HD1)

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

62

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

H.D. 1


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to the employees' retirement system.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that it has been the University of Hawaii's long-standing practice to report certain faculty members and lecturers as eligible for membership in the employees' retirement system. The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Allow current and future university faculty members, lecturers, and administrative, professional, and technical employees to qualify for membership in the employees' retirement system on the basis of aggregated multiple part-time appointments or positions;

(2) Allow past and current university faculty members, lecturers, and administrative, professional, and technical employees who held multiple part-time appointments or positions prior to the effective date of this Act and who were reported to the employees' retirement system by the university to be eligible for the system on the basis of aggregated multiple part-time appointments or positions to retain membership benefits if the employee fails to meet system membership eligibility requirements without the aggregation of multiple part-time appointments or positions; and

(3) Enable the university to implement an optional employee retirement plan.

SECTION 2. Section 88-8, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended as follows:

1. By amending subsection (a) to read:

"(a) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, the board of regents may establish without regard to the public notice or public hearing requirements of chapter 91, a retirement system separate from the state employees' retirement system to provide retirement allowances and other benefits for University of Hawaii employees who are:

(1) Members of bargaining unit (7); or

(2) [Other] Appointees of the board of regents or employees of the University of Hawaii [or the community college system] who are excluded from bargaining unit (7) pursuant to [chapter 89.] section 89-6(f), except for part-time employees working less than twenty hours per week and temporary employees of three months' duration or less.

2. By amending subsections (e), (f), and (g) to read:

(e) [The employer's share of the cost of the optional retirement plan of the optional retirement system of the University of Hawaii shall not exceed the equivalent amount for any other group covered by this chapter.] For those employees electing membership in the optional retirement system, whose compensation is paid in whole or in part from the general fund, the State shall remit to the University of Hawaii an amount equal to that which it would have contributed to the state employees' retirement system on behalf of those employees had they not elected membership in the optional retirement system.

(f) Any member of the state employees' retirement system when the optional retirement system of the University of Hawaii is established who is also:

(1) A member of bargaining unit (7); or

(2) [Other employees] An appointee of the board of regents or an employee of the University of Hawaii [or the community college system] who [are] is excluded from bargaining unit (7) pursuant to [chapter 89,] section 89-6(f), and who is not a part-time employee working less than twenty hours per week or a temporary employee of three months' duration or less,

shall remain a member of the state employees' retirement system unless the person elects in writing on a form prescribed by the board of regents to terminate the person's membership. The form shall be submitted to the state employees' retirement system no later than ninety days after the establishment of the optional retirement system of the University of Hawaii.

(g) Any person hired after the establishment of the optional retirement system of the University of Hawaii who is:

(1) A member of bargaining unit (7); or

(2) [Other employees] An appointee of the board of regents or an employee of the University of Hawaii [or the community college system] who [are] is excluded from bargaining unit (7) pursuant to [chapter 89,] section 89-6(f), and who is not a part-time employee working less that twenty hours per week or a temporary employee of three months' duration or less,

shall elect to be a member of the state employees' retirement system or the optional retirement system of the University of Hawaii. Upon an election the person may not transfer from one system to the other."

SECTION 3. Section 88-42.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§88-42.5[]] Membership of employees holding more than one position, appointment or office. (a) The membership of any employee holding more than one full-time position, appointment, office, or any combination thereof shall be limited to the position, appointment, or office of the employee's option; provided that the employment in the position, appointment, or office shall meet the minimum membership eligibility requirements as provided in this part. Any contributions made based on the compensation, pay, or salary of the employee's position, appointment, or office other than that on which the employee's membership is based shall be returned to the employee.

The foregoing shall not apply to any employee holding two part-time positions of the same class if each position meets the minimum eligibility requirements for membership and the sum total of the compensation, pay, or salary received for both positions does not exceed the higher of the full-time compensation, pay, or salary for either position.

(b) The membership of any faculty member, lecturer, or administrative, professional, and technical employee of the University of Hawaii system with multiple part-time appointments or positions shall be based on an aggregate of all such part-time faculty, lecturer, and administrative, professional, and technical employee appointments or positions, not to exceed one full-time position. The sum total of the compensation, pay, or salary received from the positions shall not, for purposes of this chapter, exceed an amount equal to the highest of the full-time compensation, pay, or salary for any one of the part-time appointments or positions. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, if any existing or former faculty member, lecturer, or administrative, professional, and technical employee of the University of Hawaii system who holds or held multiple part-time appointments or positions prior to the effective date of this Act was reported by the University of Hawaii system to the system as eligible for membership in the system, the system shall not adjust its records for, or reduce the benefits of, such employee by reason of the failure of such employee to meet system membership eligibility requirements without the aggregation of multiple part-time appointments or positions."

SECTION 4. Section 88-43, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§88-43 Persons ineligible for membership; optional membership. [The] Except with respect to faculty members, lecturers, and administrative, professional, and technical employees employed on one or more campuses of the University of Hawaii who hold multiple part-time appointments or positions, each of which may be less than one-half of a full-time equivalent but all of which when added together aggregate to at least one-half of a full-time equivalent position, the board of trustees may deny membership to any class of part-time employees or persons engaged in temporary employment of three months or less, or it may, in its discretion, make optional with persons in such classes their individual entrance into membership; provided that no officer or employee entering service after January 1, 1928, who is entitled to become a member of any pension system under [Part] part III shall be entitled to become a member of the system.

Elective officers shall be eligible for membership and their individual entrance into membership shall be at their option."

SECTION 5. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.