BILL REQ. #: S-0459.3
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2011 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/20/11. Referred to Committee on Labor, Commerce & Consumer Protection.
AN ACT Relating to state agency debt collection; amending RCW 41.40.037; adding a new section to chapter 43.17 RCW; and adding a new section to chapter 41.40 RCW.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1 A new section is added to chapter 43.17 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) All state agencies and institutions shall assign all debts over
ninety days past due to a collection agency licensed under chapter
19.16 RCW.
(2) State agencies and institutions contracting for debt collection
services under this section must give preference to businesses that
have hired state employees displaced by this section. The department
of general administration shall develop a process to certify which
businesses meet this requirement.
(3) Any state employee whose position is displaced as a result of
this section shall be eligible for placement on the statewide layoff
list for employment by other state agencies. A state employee whose
position is displaced as a result of this section and who is not
offered employment with the state within ninety days of termination
shall receive a severance payment equal to six months of the employee's
regular rate of pay at the time of termination.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 A new section is added to chapter 41.40 RCW
to read as follows:
(1) A member whose position was displaced as a result of section 1
of this act after having first earned fifteen years of service credit
while working for the state and who is eligible to retire under RCW
41.40.180, 41.40.630, or 41.40.820 may, at the time of filing a written
application for retirement with the department, apply to the department
for up to five years of additional service credit, subject to the
restrictions in this section.
(2) A member qualifying for service credit under subsection (1) of
this section shall receive additional service credit in the amount of
five years, to be reduced by one service credit month for every month
of employment that the member works for an employer during the five
year period immediately following the displacement of the member's job
as a result of section 1 of this act. The additional service credit
granted to a member under this section shall be provided at no cost to
the member.
(3) Under no circumstances may a member receive more than five
years of additional service credit as a result of credit granted under
this section and the provisions of RCW 41.40.034. Additional service
credit received under this section is not membership service and shall
be used exclusively to increase the value of the member's retirement
allowance.
Sec. 3 RCW 41.40.037 and 2007 c 50 s 5 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1)(a) If a retiree enters employment with an employer sooner than
one calendar month after his or her accrual date, the retiree's monthly
retirement allowance will be reduced by five and one-half percent for
every eight hours worked during that month. This reduction will be
applied each month until the retiree remains absent from employment
with an employer for one full calendar month.
(b) The benefit reduction provided in (a) of this subsection will
accrue for a maximum of one hundred sixty hours per month. Any benefit
reduction over one hundred percent will be applied to the benefit the
retiree is eligible to receive in subsequent months.
(2)(a) Except as provided in (b) of this subsection, a retiree from
plan 1 who enters employment with an employer at least one calendar
month after his or her accrual date may continue to receive pension
payments while engaged in such service for up to eight hundred sixty-seven hours of service in a calendar year without a reduction of
pension.
(b) A retiree from plan 1 who enters employment with an employer at
least three calendar months after his or her accrual date and:
(i) Is hired pursuant to a written policy into a position for which
the employer has documented a justifiable need to hire a retiree into
the position;
(ii) Is hired through the established process for the position with
the approval of: A school board for a school district; the chief
executive officer of a state agency employer; the secretary of the
senate for the senate; the chief clerk of the house of representatives
for the house of representatives; the secretary of the senate and the
chief clerk of the house of representatives jointly for the joint
legislative audit and review committee, the select committee on pension
policy, the legislative evaluation and accountability program, the
legislative systems committee, and the statute law committee; or
according to rules adopted for the rehiring of retired plan 1 members
for a local government employer;
(iii) The employer retains records of the procedures followed and
decisions made in hiring the retiree, and provides those records in the
event of an audit; and
(iv) The employee has not already either:
(A) Rendered a cumulative total of more than one thousand nine
hundred hours of service while in receipt of pension payments beyond an
annual threshold of eight hundred sixty-seven hours; or
(B) Received additional service credit under section 2 of this act
within the previous five years;
shall cease to receive pension payments while engaged in that service
after the retiree has rendered service for more than one thousand five
hundred hours in a calendar year. The one thousand nine hundred hour
cumulative total under this subsection applies prospectively to those
retiring after July 27, 2003, and retroactively to those who retired
prior to July 27, 2003, and shall be calculated from the date of
retirement.
(c) When a plan 1 member renders service beyond eight hundred
sixty-seven hours, the department shall collect from the employer the
applicable employer retirement contributions for the entire duration of
the member's employment during that calendar year.
(d) A retiree from plan 2 or plan 3 who has satisfied the break in
employment requirement of subsection (1) of this section may work up to
eight hundred sixty-seven hours in a calendar year in an eligible
position, as defined in RCW 41.32.010, 41.35.010, 41.37.010, or
41.40.010, or as a firefighter or law enforcement officer, as defined
in RCW 41.26.030, without suspension of his or her benefit.
(3) If the retiree opts to reestablish membership under RCW
41.40.023(12), he or she terminates his or her retirement status and
becomes a member. Retirement benefits shall not accrue during the
period of membership and the individual shall make contributions and
receive membership credit. Such a member shall have the right to again
retire if eligible in accordance with RCW 41.40.180. However, if the
right to retire is exercised to become effective before the member has
rendered two uninterrupted years of service, the retirement formula and
survivor options the member had at the time of the member's previous
retirement shall be reinstated.
(4) The department shall collect and provide the state actuary with
information relevant to the use of this section for the select
committee on pension policy.
(5) The legislature reserves the right to amend or repeal this
section in the future and no member or beneficiary has a contractual
right to be employed for more than five months in a calendar year
without a reduction of his or her pension.