BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2028
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
2028 (Cooper)
As Amended June 13, 2016
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(April 28, |SENATE: | 37-0 |(August 11, |
| | |2016) | | |2016) |
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Original Committee Reference: P.E.,R., & S.S.
SUMMARY: Requires that a member of the California Public
Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) who is involuntarily
terminated and is subsequently reinstated to employment pursuant
to an administrative, arbitral, or judicial proceeding receive
all retirement benefits that they otherwise would have accrued
had they not been terminated. Specifically, 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 be reinstated with all retirement benefits that the
member otherwise would have accrued.
2)Specifies that administrative proceedings also include
proceedings before the governing board of a school district, a
charter school, a county office of education, or a community
AB 2028
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college district.
3)Specifies that the reinstatement of benefits is effective as
of the date from which salary is awarded in the
administrative, arbitral, or judicial proceedings.
Additionally, this bill requires that contributions 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.
4)Specifies that the provisions of this measure apply to members
who are subject to an involuntary termination effective on or
after January 1, 2017.
5)Requires the employer of the employee who has been
involuntarily terminated to notify CalPERS of the final
decision ordering the member's reinstatement to employment
within five days of the date the decision becomes final.
6)Requires the notice of reinstatement to include the date of
involuntary termination and the date on which the member was
reinstated to employment after the decision.
7)Provides that if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that this bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement to local agencies and school districts for those
costs shall be made pursuant to Government Code Title 2
Division 4 Part 7 (commencing with Section 17500).
The Senate amendments revised and recast the provisions of the
bill to apply to all active CalPERS school and local agency
members and to make the provisions consistent with provisions in
existing law that apply to CalPERS members who retired after an
involuntary termination and were subsequently reinstated to
their employment.
AB 2028
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FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs.
COMMENTS: 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."
AB 2028
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Analysis Prepared by:
Karon Green / P.E.,R., & S.S. / (916) 319-3957
FN:
0003702