WEST VIRGINIA CODE











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WVC 5 - 10 - 14

§5-10-14. Service credit; retroactive provisions.

     (a) The board of trustees shall credit each member with the

prior service and contributing service to which he or she is

entitled based upon rules adopted by the board of trustees and

based upon the following:

     (1) In no event may less than ten days of service rendered by

a member in any calendar month be credited as a month of service:

Provided, That for employees of the state Legislature whose term of

employment is otherwise classified as temporary and who are

employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its

regular sessions or during the interim between regular sessions and

who have been or are so employed during regular sessions or during

the interim between regular sessions in seven consecutive calendar

years, service credit of one month shall be awarded for each ten

days employed in the interim between regular sessions, which

interim days shall be cumulatively calculated so that any ten days,

regardless of calendar month or year, shall be calculated toward

any award of one month of service credit;

     (2) Except for hourly employees, and those persons who first

become members of the retirement system on or after July 1, 2015,

ten or more months of service credit earned in any calendar year

shall be credited as a year of service: Provided, That no more

than one year of service may be credited to any member for all

service rendered by him or her in any calendar year and no days may

be carried over by a member from one calendar year to another calendar year where the member has received a full-year credit for

that year; and

     (3) Service may be credited to a member who was employed by a

political subdivision if his or her employment occurred within a

period of thirty years immediately preceding the date the political

subdivision became a participating public employer.

     (b) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to

employees of boards of health, the Clerk of the House of Delegates

and the Clerk of the State Senate or to any former and present

member of the State Teachers Retirement System who have been

contributing members for more than three years, for service

previously credited by the State Teachers Retirement System and

shall require the transfer of the member's contributions to the

system and shall also require a deposit, with interest, of any

withdrawals of contributions any time prior to the member's

retirement. Repayment of withdrawals shall be as directed by the

board of trustees.

     (c) Court reporters who are acting in an official capacity,

although paid by funds other than the county commission or State

Auditor, may receive prior service credit for time served in that

capacity.

     (d) Active members who previously worked in Comprehensive

Employment and Training Act (CETA) may receive service credit for

time served in that capacity: Provided, That in order to receive

service credit under the provisions of this subsection the following conditions must be met: (1) The member must have moved

from temporary employment with the participating employer to

permanent full-time employment with the participating employer

within one hundred twenty days following the termination of the

member's CETA employment; (2) the board must receive evidence that

establishes to a reasonable degree of certainty as determined by

the board that the member previously worked in CETA; and (3) the

member shall pay to the board an amount equal to the employer and

employee contribution plus interest at the amount set by the board

for the amount of service credit sought pursuant to this

subsection: Provided, however, That the maximum service credit

that may be obtained under the provisions of this subsection is two

years: Provided further, That a member must apply and pay for the

service credit allowed under this subsection and provide all

necessary documentation by March 31, 2003: And provided further,

That the board shall exercise due diligence to notify affected

employees of the provisions of this subsection.

     (e) (1) Employees of the state Legislature whose terms of

employment are otherwise classified as temporary and who are

employed to perform services required by the Legislature for its

regular sessions or during the interim time between regular

sessions shall receive service credit for the time served in that

capacity in accordance with the following: For purposes of this

section, the term "regular session" means day one through day sixty

of a sixty-day legislative session or day one through day thirty of a thirty-day legislative session. Employees of the state

Legislature whose term of employment is otherwise classified as

temporary and who are employed to perform services required by the

Legislature for its regular sessions or during the interim time

between regular sessions and who have been or are employed during

regular sessions or during the interim time between regular

sessions in seven consecutive calendar years, as certified by the

clerk of the house in which the employee served, shall receive

service credit of six months for all regular sessions served, as

certified by the clerk of the house in which the employee served,

or shall receive service credit of three months for each regular

thirty-day session served prior to 1971: Provided, That employees

of the state Legislature whose term of employment is otherwise

classified as temporary and who are employed to perform services

required by the Legislature for its regular sessions and who have

been or are employed during the regular sessions in thirteen

consecutive calendar years as either temporary employees or

full-time employees or a combination thereof, as certified by the

clerk of the house in which the employee served, shall receive a

service credit of twelve months for each regular session served, as

certified by the clerk of the house in which the employee served:

Provided, however, That the amendments made to this subsection

during the 2002 regular session of the Legislature only apply to

employees of the Legislature who are employed by the Legislature as

either temporary employees or full-time employees as of January 1, 2002, or who become employed by the Legislature as temporary or

full-time employees for the first time after January 1, 2002.

Employees of the State Legislature whose terms of employment are

otherwise classified as temporary and who are employed to perform

services required by the Legislature during the interim time

between regular sessions shall receive service credit of one month

for each ten days served during the interim between regular

sessions, which interim days shall be cumulatively calculated so

that any ten days, regardless of calendar month or year, shall be

calculated toward any award of one month of service credit:

Provided further, That no more than one year of service may be

credited to any temporary legislative employee for all service

rendered by that employee in any calendar year and no days may be

carried over by a temporary legislative employee from one calendar

year to another calendar year where the member has received a full

year credit for that year. Service credit awarded for legislative

employment pursuant to this section shall be used for the purpose

of calculating that member's retirement annuity, pursuant to

section twenty-two of this article, and determining eligibility as

it relates to credited service, notwithstanding any other provision

of this section. Certification of employment for a complete

legislative session and for interim days shall be determined by the

clerk of the house in which the employee served, based upon

employment records. Service of fifty-five days of a regular

session constitutes an absolute presumption of service for a complete legislative session and service of twenty-seven days of a

thirty-day regular session occurring prior to 1971 constitutes an

absolute presumption of service for a complete legislative session.

Once a legislative employee has been employed during regular

sessions for seven consecutive years or has become a full-time

employee of the Legislature, that employee shall receive the

service credit provided in this section for all regular and interim

sessions and interim days worked by that employee, as certified by

the clerk of the house in which the employee served, regardless of

when the session or interim legislative employment occurred: And

provided further, That regular session legislative employment for

seven consecutive years may be served in either or both houses of

the Legislature.

     (2) For purposes of this section, employees of the Joint

Committee on Government and Finance are entitled to the same

benefits as employees of the House of Delegates or the Senate:

Provided, That for joint committee employees whose terms of

employment are otherwise classified as temporary, employment in

preparation for regular sessions, certified by the legislative

manager as required by the Legislature for its regular sessions,

shall be considered the same as employment during regular sessions

to meet service credit requirements for sessions served.

     (f) Any employee may purchase retroactive service credit for

periods of employment in which contributions were not deducted from

the employee's pay. In the purchase of service credit for employment prior to 1989 in any department, including the

Legislature, which operated from the General Revenue Fund and which

was not expressly excluded from budget appropriations in which

blanket appropriations were made for the state's share of public

employees' retirement coverage in the years prior to 1989, the

employee shall pay the employee's share. Other employees shall pay

the state's share and the employee's share to purchase retroactive

service credit. Where an employee purchases service credit for

employment which occurred after 1988, that employee shall pay for

the employee's share and the employer shall pay its share for the

purchase of retroactive service credit: Provided, That no

legislative employee and no current or former member of the

Legislature may be required to pay any interest or penalty upon the

purchase of retroactive service credit in accordance with the

provisions of this section where the employee was not eligible to

become a member during the years for which he or she is purchasing

retroactive credit or had the employee attempted to contribute to

the system during the years for which he or she is purchasing

retroactive service credit and such contributions would have been

refused by the board: Provided, however, That a legislative

employee purchasing retroactive credit under this section does so

within twenty-four months of becoming a member of the system or no

later than December 31, 2008, whichever occurs last: Provided

further, That once a legislative employee becomes a member of the

retirement system, he or she may purchase retroactive service credit for any time he or she was employed by the Legislature and

did not receive service credit. Any service credit purchased shall

be credited as six months for each sixty-day session worked, three

months for each thirty-day session worked or twelve months for each

sixty-day session for legislative employees who have been employed

during regular sessions in thirteen consecutive calendar years, as

certified by the clerk of the house in which the employee served,

and credit for interim employment as provided in this subsection:

And provided further, That this legislative service credit shall

also be used for months of service in order to meet the sixty-month

requirement for the payments of a temporary legislative employee

member's retirement annuity: And provided further, That no

legislative employee may be required to pay for any service credit

beyond the actual time he or she worked regardless of the service

credit which is credited to him or her pursuant to this section:

And provided further, That any legislative employee may request a

recalculation of his or her credited service to comply with the

provisions of this section at any time.

     (g) (1) Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the

seven consecutive calendar years requirement and the thirteen

consecutive calendar years requirement and the service credit

requirements set forth in this section shall be applied

retroactively to all periods of legislative employment prior to the

passage of this section, including any periods of legislative

employment occurring before the seven consecutive and thirteen consecutive calendar years referenced in this section: Provided,

That the employee has not retired prior to the effective date of

the amendments made to this section in the 2002 regular session of

the Legislature.

     (2) The requirement of seven consecutive years and the

requirement of thirteen consecutive years apply retroactively to

all legislative employment prior to the effective date of the 2006

amendments to this section.

     (h) The board of trustees shall grant service credit to any

former or present member of the State Police Death, Disability and

Retirement Fund who has been a contributing member of this system

for more than three years for service previously credited by the

State Police Death, Disability and Retirement Fund if the member

transfers all of his or her contributions to the State Police

Death, Disability and Retirement Fund to the system created in this

article, including repayment of any amounts withdrawn any time from

the State Police Death, Disability and Retirement Fund by the

member seeking the transfer allowed in this subsection: Provided,

That there shall be added by the member to the amounts transferred

or repaid under this subsection an amount which shall be sufficient

to equal the contributions he or she would have made had the member

been under the Public Employees Retirement System during the period

of his or her membership in the State Police Death, Disability and

Retirement Fund, excluding contributions on lump sum payment for

annual leave, plus interest at a rate determined by the board.

     (i) The provisions of section twenty-two-h of this article are

not applicable to the amendments made to this section during the

2006 regular session.





Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2015 Regular Session

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