BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 197
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( Without Reference to File )
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 197 (Buchanan)
As Amended August 31, 2012
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: | |(May 5, 2011) |SENATE: |39-0 |(August 31, |
| | | | | |2012) |
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(vote not relevant)
Original Committee Reference: L.& E.
SUMMARY : Clarifies two section of the conference committee
report creating the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of
2013.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Change the word "required" to "authorized" in a Government
Code section intended to allow enhanced bargaining for local
and school employers in the California Public Employees"
Retirement System (CalPERS) with regard to increased member
cost sharing.
2)Clarify the intent of the conference report with regard to
current members of retirement systems establish pursuant to
the County Employees' Retirement Law of 1937 ('37 Act) by
specifying that payments for termination pay and leave, as
specified, may not exceed what is earned in a year and
payable, consistent with the applicable court cases in regard
to this issue.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill increased the amount of
liquidated damages that may be awarded to an employee when an
employer fails to pay minimum wage to two times the wages
unlawfully unpaid, plus interest.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : AB 340 (Furutani) of this year, contains the report
of the Conference Committee on Public Employee's Pension Reform.
AB 197
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A conference report may not be amended once it has been
transmitted to the floor of the houses for vote. Two sections
of AB 340 have been found in need of technical clarification in
order to prevent unintended consequences.
The section eliminates former requirements that employers
provide offsetting increases in benefits in exchange for higher
member contributions, and it allows employers to bargain
increased cost sharing by bargaining unit versus retirement
membership class. The section requires that the employer
bargain these increases and not be allowed to increase the
member share through impasse procedures above the contribution
amount "which is required by law."
The first amendment has been requested by the Governor to
clarify that the contributions authorized by law is the amount,
above which, an employer cannot impose increased contributions
through the additional cost-sharing provisions provided by the
conference committee report.
The second amendment clarifies provisions designed to reign in
pension spiking by current '37 Act retirement system members to
the extent allowable by court cases that have governed
compensation earnable in that system since 2003. These cases
allowed certain cash payments to be included in compensation for
the purpose of determining a benefit, but only to the extent
that the cash payments were limited to what the employee earned
in a year. This amendment is needed due to a concern that was
raised that, as written, the conference report could, increase
the ability of some current employees to spike their pensions
rather than achieving the intended outcome of reducing spiking
opportunities.
All new members in the '37 Act retirement systems would be
subject to the new compensation requirements established by the
conference committee report. Under those provisions, new public
employees would not be able to have terminal or leave pay count
toward a pension.
This bill will be transmitted to the Governor with the request
that it be signed after AB 340. The two sections in this bill
will chapter out the same sections in AB 340, thus correcting
the errors described in this analysis.
AB 197
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Analysis Prepared by : Karon Green / P.E., R. & S.S. / (916)
319-3957
FN: 0005893