H. B. 2613
(By Delegates Jenkins, Hubbard and White)
[Introduced February 3, 1999;
Referred to the Committee on Pensions and Retirement then
Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section seventeen, article seven-a,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to education;
state teachers retirement system; computation of teachers'
service; providing that maternity leave is not absence from
service when the maternity leave occurred prior to the year
one thousand nine hundred seventy-five; setting forth
entitlement to maternity leave; providing that members of the
teachers retirement system may make contributions for time
periods in which they were receiving temporary total
disability payments from the workers' compensation fund and
obtain service credit therefor; setting forth the rate of
contribution; providing a limit on service credit which may be
obtained; definitions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section seventeen, article seven-a, chapter eighteen of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-17. Statement and computation of teachers' service.
(a) Under rules adopted by the retirement board, each teacher
shall file a detailed statement of his or her length of service as
a teacher for which he or she claims credit. The retirement board
shall determine what part of a year is the equivalent of a year of
service. In computing the service, however, it shall credit no
period of more than a month's duration during which a member was
absent without pay, nor shall it credit for more than one year of
service performed in any calendar year.
(b) For the purpose of this article, the retirement board
shall grant prior service credit to new entrants and other members
of the retirement system for service in any of the armed forces of
the United States in any period of national emergency within which
a federal Selective Service Act was in effect. For purposes of
this section, "armed forces" includes women's army corps, women's
appointed volunteers for emergency service, army nurse corps,
spars, women's reserve and other similar units officially parts of
the military service of the United States. The military service is
considered equivalent to public school teaching, and the salary equivalent for each year of that service is the actual salary of
the member as a teacher for his or her first year of teaching after
discharge from military service. Prior service credit for military
service shall not exceed ten years for any one member, nor shall it
exceed twenty-five percent of total service at the time of
retirement.
(c) For service as a teacher in the employment of the federal
government, or a state or territory of the United States, or a
governmental subdivision of that state or territory, the retirement
board shall grant credit to the member:
Provided, That the member
shall pay to the system double the amount he or she contributed
during the first full year of current employment, times the number
of years for which credit is granted, plus interest at a rate to be
determined by the retirement board. The interest shall be
deposited in the reserve fund and service credit granted at the
time of retirement shall not exceed the lesser of ten years or
fifty percent of the member's total service as a teacher in West
Virginia. Any transfer of out-of-state service, as provided in
this article, shall not be used to establish eligibility for a
retirement allowance and the retirement board shall grant credit
for the transferred service as additional service only:
Provided,
however, That a transfer of out-of-state service is prohibited if
the service is used to obtain a retirement benefit from another
retirement system:
Provided further, That salaries paid to members for service prior to entrance into the retirement system shall not
be used to compute the average final salary of the member under the
retirement system.
(d) Service credit for members or retired members shall not be
denied on the basis of minimum income rules promulgated by the
teachers retirement board:
Provided, That the member or retired
member shall pay to the system the amount he or she would have
contributed during the year or years of public school service for
which credit was denied as a result of the minimum income rules of
the teachers retirement board.
(e) No members shall be considered absent from service while
serving as a member or employee of the Legislature of the state of
West Virginia during any duly constituted session of that body or
while serving as an elected member of a county commission during
any duly constituted session of that body.
(f) No member shall be considered absent from service as a
teacher while serving as an officer with a statewide professional
teaching association, or who has served in that capacity, and no
retired teacher, who served in that capacity while a member, shall
be considered to have been absent from service as a teacher by
reason of that service:
Provided, That the period of service
credit granted for that service shall not exceed ten years:
Provided, however, That a member or retired teacher who is serving
or has served as an officer of a statewide professional teaching association shall make deposits to the teachers retirement board,
for the time of any absence, in an amount double the amount which
he or she would have contributed in his or her regular assignment
for a like period of time.
The teachers retirement board shall grant service credit to
any former or present member of the West Virginia public employees
retirement system who has been a contributing member for more than
three years, for service previously credited by the public
employees retirement system and: (1) Shall require the transfer of
the member's contributions to the teachers retirement system; or
(2) shall require a repayment of the amount withdrawn any time
prior to the member's retirement:
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 teachers retirement system during the period of his or her
membership in the public employees retirement system plus interest
at a rate of six percent compounded annually from the date of
withdrawal to the date of payment. The interest paid shall be
deposited in the reserve fund.
(g)
No active member may be deemed absent from service for
maternity leave taken prior to the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred seventy-five. Any member who has lost
retirement credit while being off on maternity leave prior to the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred seventy-five shall
immediately be given one year credit for each occasion that he or
she was off on forced maternity leave.
(h) Each employee who is a member of the teachers retirement
system shall be afforded the right to make contributions, up to a
rate of ten percent of the total amount of temporary total
disability payments received from the workers' compensation fund
during a period or periods of absence from work due to sickness or
injury prior to the effective date of the amendments made to this
section during the one thousand nine hundred ninety-nine regular
session of the legislature. The employer shall apprise a member
upon the member's return to employment from temporary total
disability that he or she has the option to have salary reductions
made, in addition to the contributions provided for in section
fourteen of this article, up to ten percent of the temporary total
disability payments received by the member. The member,
alternatively, shall be afforded the option to make direct
contributions from personal funds, up to ten percent of the total
amount of temporary total disability payments received for a period
or periods of absence from work due to sickness or injury:
Provided, That a member may not contribute a greater amount than he
or she would have contributed had he or she earned their regular
pay during the period in which the member received the payment of
temporary total disability payments. Provided however, That under no circumstances may a member receive credit for a greater rate of
pay than he or she would have had he or she received his or her
regular pay during the period in which the member received the
payment of temporary total disability payments: Provided further,
That the right to contribute ten percent of temporary total
disability payments is for temporary total disability payments
received after the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine
hundred eighty-eight. The board shall award service credit to the
member making such contributions on a day for day basis, with one
day service credit being granted for one day of temporary total
disability paid in at the rate of ten percent of the temporary
total disability rate of pay; And provided further, That a member
may not receive more than four years service credit under the
provisions of this subsection. For purposes of this section,
"temporary total disability payments" refer solely to amounts
representing temporary wage replacement which are received by an
injured or ill worker for work-related injury or illness pursuant
to the provisions of chapter twenty-three of this code, and as used
here that term has the same meaning as when used in chapter twenty- three of this code.
(I) For service as a teacher in an elementary or secondary
parochial school, located within this state and fully accredited by
the West Virginia department of education, the retirement board
shall grant credit to the member: Provided, That the member shall pay to the system double the amount contributed during the first
full year of current employment, times the number of years for
which credit is granted, plus interest at a rate to be determined
by the retirement board. The interest shall be deposited in the
reserve fund and service granted at the time of retirement shall
not exceed the lesser of ten years or fifty percent of the member's
total service as a teacher in the West Virginia public school
system. Any transfer of parochial school service, as provided in
this section, may not be used to establish eligibility for a
retirement allowance and the board shall grant credit for the
transfer as additional service only: Provided, however, That a
transfer of parochial school service is prohibited if the service
is used to obtain a retirement benefit from another retirement
system.
(h)(j) If a member is not eligible for prior service credit or
pension as provided in this article, then his or her prior service
shall not be considered a part of his or her total service.
(I)(k) A member who withdrew from membership may regain his or
her former membership rights as specified in section thirteen of
this article only in case he or she has served two years since his
or her last withdrawal.
(j)(l)Subject to the provisions of subsection (a) through
(I)(k) of this section, the board shall verify as soon as
practicable the statements of service submitted. The retirement board shall issue prior service certificates to all persons
eligible for the certificates under the provisions of this article.
The certificates shall state the length of the prior service
credit, but in no case shall the prior service credit exceed forty
years.
Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the contrary,
when a member is or has been elected to serve as a member of the
Legislature, and the proper discharge of his or her duties of
public office require that member to be absent from his or her
teaching or administrative duties, the time served in discharge of
his or her duties of the legislative office are credited as time
served for purposes of computing service credit: Provided, That
the board may not require any additional contributions from that
member in order for the board to credit him or her with the
contributing service credit earned while discharging official
legislative duties.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to restore service credit
to those teachers who, prior to 1975, were forced to take extended
maternity leaves. The bill also allows a member who was off work
due to a compensable injury for Workers' Compensation purposes to
receive service credit of up to four years by repaying 10% of the
temporary total disability benefits received. The Workers'
Compensation benefits must have been received after 1987.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the code, and underscoring indicates new language that would be
added.
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