Article 1.7. Reduced Worktime For Partial Service Retirement of California Government Code >> Division 5. >> Title 2. >> Part 2.6. >> Chapter 7. >> Article 1.7.

This article shall be known and may be cited as the "Partial Service Retirement Act."

It is the intent of the Legislature in adopting this article to pursue the following objectives:
  (a) To protect the fiscal soundness of the Public Employees' Retirement System.
  (b) To increase the number and kinds of retirement options available to members of the system.
  (c) To enhance the quality of service to the general public by retaining longer, on the average, the skill and expertise of our most experienced public servants.
  (d) To reduce insofar as possible by this indirect means the social costs attributable to inappropriate or premature severance of connection with the labor market by retirees.
  (e) To conduct and disseminate studies determining the extent to which the concepts embodied in this article are effective in achieving such objectives in hopes that, if successful, the program established under this article may be useful as a guide for extension of the concept to other retirement systems, public and private.

Any state employee, or legislative employee, who is a state miscellaneous or industrial member working standard hours on a full-time basis, other than a university member, of the Public Employees' Retirement System and who is eligible to retire pursuant to Section 20953 may elect to participate in reduced worktime for partial service retirement pursuant to this article, provided that the participation may be modified only pursuant to Section 19996.37.

"Reduced worktime for partial service retirement" means any arrangement of worktime agreeable to both the appointing authority and the employee which aggregates no less, on a monthly basis, than a 20 percent reduction nor more than a 60 percent reduction from what would in that classification be considered full-time employment, combined with the concurrent payment of proportionally reduced compensation and proportionally reduced retirement benefits. As used in this section, and Section 19996.37, "appointing authority" means, with respect to legislative employees, the Joint Rules Committee, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the Senate Rules Committee, and the Assembly Rules Committee.

It is the policy of the state that reduced worktime for partial service retirement shall be made available to state employees and legislative employees eligible pursuant to Section 19996.32 who do not desire to work standard working hours on a full-time basis. Further, it is the intent of the Legislature that nothing in this act shall be used to reduce the number of full-time equivalency positions authorized to any department.

(a) Any employee who is being coerced, or who has been required, by the appointing power, a supervisor, or another employee, to involuntarily reduce his or her worktime for partial service retirement contrary to the intent of this article, or who has been unreasonably denied the right to participate in this program, may file a grievance in accordance with either the applicable memorandum of understanding or rules and regulations of the department.
  (b) Nothing in this article shall impair the employment or employment rights or benefits of any employee.

In counting the number of employees any state agency employs for purposes of any personnel ceiling, an employee employed on a reduced worktime basis for partial service retirement shall be counted as a fraction which is determined by dividing 40 hours into the average number of hours that an employee works each week.

(a) A permanent state employee or legislative employee who voluntarily reduces his or her worktime for partial service retirement pursuant to this article shall, upon request and subject to subdivision (b), be given priority for returning to a full-time work schedule to the extent that such full-time work is available; provided, that any employee who so voluntarily returns to full-time work shall be ineligible for five years thereafter to again participate pursuant to this article. The appointing authority may require a participating employee to return to full-time employment only if a state of emergency has been declared pursuant to Section 8558 which affects the area of the state in which the employee works.
  (b) A state employee or a legislative employee who is participating pursuant to this article in reduced worktime for partial service retirement may: (1) elect only once in each fiscal year to further reduce his or her worktime; (2) elect only once in five years to increase his or her worktime to another less than full-time schedule.

If the provisions of this article are in conflict with the provisions of a memorandum of understanding reached pursuant to Section 3517.5, the memorandum of understanding shall be controlling without further legislative action, except that if such provisions of a memorandum of understanding require the expenditure of funds, the provisions shall not become effective unless approved by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act.

All persons employed in reduced worktime positions for partial service retirement pursuant to this article, shall receive proportionally reduced compensation and, on a pro rata basis, except for benefits provided under the Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act, the State Employees' Dental Care Act, and the California Dental Service program, all benefits customarily available to full-time employees of state agencies in similar classes or positions. With regard to benefits provided under the Public Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act, persons employed in reduced worktime positions for partial service retirement shall receive the same benefits as are provided by law for employees under the same circumstances who are employed, full time. The department may, for purposes of administrative efficiency, treat the class of partially retired employees as fully employed with respect to health care benefits, provided that such administrative treatment does not impair the level of benefits to which the class would be entitled if treated administratively another way.