BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 2028|
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CONSENT
Bill No: AB 2028
Author: Cooper (D)
Amended: 6/13/16 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC EMP. & RET. COMMITTEE: 5-0, 6/27/16
AYES: Pan, Morrell, Beall, Hall, Moorlach
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: Senate Rule 28.8
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 4/28/16 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: Public employees' retirement: involuntary
termination: reinstatement
SOURCE: California Professional Firefighters
California School Employees Association
DIGEST: This bill requires that a member of the California
Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) who was
involuntarily terminated from employment and is later reinstated
to the position pursuant to an administrative, arbitral, or
judicial proceeding shall be reinstated with all retirement
benefits that the member otherwise would have accrued.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Requires the State Personnel Board to direct the payment of
salary and all interest accrued thereto, and the reinstatement
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Page 2
of all benefits, including retirement benefits, that otherwise
would have normally accrued whenever the board revokes or
modifies an adverse action and orders that a state employee be
returned to his or her position.
2)In addition, Government Code Section 21198 provides the
authority to restore service credit for all CalPERS members,
who retired after being wrongfully terminated, but before the
termination was reversed, pursuant to an administrative or
judicial proceeding.
This bill:
1)Requires that a CalPERS member who was involuntarily
terminated from employment and is later reinstated to the
position pursuant to an administrative, arbitral, or judicial
proceeding shall be reinstated with all retirement benefits
that the member otherwise would have accrued.
2)Provides that the reinstatement of benefits shall be effective
as of the date from which salary is awarded in the
administrative, arbitral, or judicial proceedings.
Additionally, the bill requires that contributions shall be
made for any period for which salary is awarded in the
proceedings in the amount that the member would have
contributed had his or her employment not been terminated.
3)Provides that the member shall receive credit as state
service, as defined in Section 20069, for the period for which
salary is awarded and contributions are received.
4)Applies to members who are subject to an involuntary
termination effective on or after January 1, 2017.
5)Requires the member's employer to notify the CalPERS board of
the final decision ordering the member's reinstatement to
employment within five days of the date the decision becomes
final. The notification shall include the date of involuntary
termination and the date on which the member was reinstated to
employment after the decision.
6)Provides that if the Commission on State Mandates determines
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Page 3
that this bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those
costs shall be made pursuant to Part 7 (commencing with
Section 17500) of Division 4 of Title 2 of the Government
Code.
Background
According to CalPERS, under existing law, there are two code
sections that permit service credit to be granted retroactively
to employees that have been subjected to an involuntary
termination which has been subsequently reversed. One section
"applies only to state employees and requires the State
Personnel Board, when revoking or modifying an "adverse action'
and ordering the employee to be returned to his or her position,
to direct payment of salary and interest, as well as
reinstatement of retirement and other benefits that otherwise
would have accrued."
The other section "applies to all CalPERS members that retired
after an involuntary termination and were subsequently
reinstated to their employment."
Thus, according to CalPERS, "school members and contracting
agency members who do not retire after an involuntary
termination do not have any eligibility to have service credit
granted regardless of whether or not the termination is
reversed." However, CalPERS has apparently applied this
interpretation of statute inconsistently in the past and both
approved and rejected requests to credit reinstated school
employees with service credit for periods corresponding to a
wrongful termination.
According to the sponsor, "AB 2028 would codify past practice at
CalPERS into statute to restore retirement credits for school,
safety, and local agency employees and retirees, when it is
found that they were wrongfully terminated." Despite past
practices, the sponsor states that "CalPERS believes that
existing statutes could be deemed insufficient to provide
service credit restoration for school, safety, and some local
agency employees, as statutorily provided to state employees."
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Related/Prior Legislation
AB 2009 (Papan, Chapter 1195, Statutes of 1985) required the
State to reinstate benefits that would have accrued to a state
employee who had been subject to adverse action which was
subsequently reversed, including retirement, medical, dental,
and seniority benefits.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: Yes Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: Yes
SUPPORT: (Verified8/2/16)
California Professional Firefighters (co-source)
California School Employees Association, AFL-CIO (co-source)
California Federation of Teachers
California Labor Federation
California Public Employees' Retirement System
Laborers' International Union of North America, Locals 777
Laborers' International Union of North America, Locals 792
Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association
Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, Local 3631
Organization of SMUD Employees
Peace Officers Research Association of California
San Diego County Court Employees Association
San Luis Obispo County Employees Association
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/2/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the sponsor:
This bill codifies past practice at CalPERS. This bill
would continue to ensure parity for school and safety
workers with state workers.
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Without this fix, an employee could lose the service credit
that he/she otherwise was entitled to, if the wrongful
termination never occurred.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 4/28/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper,
Dababneh, Dahle, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines,
Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson,
Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger
Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey,
Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty,
Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell,
Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez, Daly, Mathis, Olsen
Prepared by:Glenn Miles / P.E. & R. / (916) 651-1519
8/3/16 18:23:06
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