HF 3720

as introduced - 90th Legislature (2017 - 2018) Posted on 03/12/2018 02:27pm

A bill for an act
relating to retirement; Public Employees Retirement Association; excluding from
coverage temporary employees of the city of St. Paul and Independent School
District No. 625, St. Paul, who are covered by the Minnesota Laborers Pension
Fund; allowing a coverage election; amending Minnesota Statutes 2016, section
353.01, subdivision 2b.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2016, section 353.01, subdivision 2b, is amended to read:

Subd. 2b.

Excluded employees.

(a) The following public employees are not eligible to
participate as members of the association with retirement coverage by the general employees
retirement plan, the local government correctional employees retirement plan under chapter
353E, or the public employees police and fire retirement plan:

(1) persons whose annual salary from one governmental subdivision never exceeds an
amount, stipulated in writing in advance, of $5,100 if the person is not a school district
employee or $3,800 if the person is a school year employee. If annual compensation from
one governmental subdivision to an employee exceeds the stipulated amount in a calendar
year or a school year, whichever applies, after being stipulated in advance not to exceed the
applicable amount, the stipulation is no longer valid and contributions must be made on
behalf of the employee under section 353.27, subdivision 12, from the first month in which
the employee received salary exceeding $425 in a month;

(2) public officers who are elected to a governing body, city mayors, or persons who
are appointed to fill a vacancy in an elective office of a governing body, whose term of
office commences on or after July 1, 2002, for the service to be rendered in that elective
position;

(3) election judges and persons employed solely to administer elections;

(4) patient and inmate personnel who perform services for a governmental subdivision;

(5) except as otherwise specified in subdivision 12a, employees who are employed solely
in a temporary position as defined under subdivision 12a, and employees who resign from
a nontemporary position and accept a temporary position within 30 days of that resignation
in the same governmental subdivision;

(6) employees who are employed by reason of work emergency caused by fire, flood,
storm, or similar disaster, but if the person becomes a probationary or provisional employee
within the same pay period, other than on a temporary basis, the person is a "public
employee" retroactively to the beginning of the pay period;

(7) employees who by virtue of their employment in one governmental subdivision are
required by law to be a member of and to contribute to any of the plans or funds administered
by the Minnesota State Retirement System, the Teachers Retirement Association, or the St.
Paul Teachers Retirement Fund Association, but this exclusion must not be construed to
prevent a person from being a member of and contributing to the Public Employees
Retirement Association and also belonging to and contributing to another public pension
plan or fund for other service occurring during the same period of time, and a person who
meets the definition of "public employee" in subdivision 2 by virtue of other service occurring
during the same period of time becomes a member of the association unless contributions
are made to another public retirement plan on the salary based on the other service or to the
Teachers Retirement Association by a teacher as defined in section 354.05, subdivision 2;

(8) persons who are members of a religious order and are excluded from coverage under
the federal Old Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance Program for the performance
of service as specified in United States Code, title 42, section 410(a)(8)(A), as amended, if
no irrevocable election of coverage has been made under section 3121(r) of the Internal
Revenue Code of 1954, as amended;

(9) persons who are:

(i) employed by a governmental subdivision who have not reached the age of 23 and
who are enrolled on a full-time basis to attend or are attending classes on a full-time basis
at an accredited school, college, or university in an undergraduate, graduate, or
professional-technical program, or at a public or charter high school;

(ii) employed as resident physicians, medical interns, pharmacist residents, or pharmacist
interns and are serving in a degree or residency program in a public hospital or in a public
clinic; or

(iii) students who are serving for a period not to exceed five years in an internship or a
residency program that is sponsored by a governmental subdivision, including an accredited
educational institution;

(10) persons who hold a part-time adult supplementary technical college license who
render part-time teaching service in a technical college;

(11) except for employees of Hennepin County or employees of Hennepin Healthcare
System, Inc., foreign citizens who are employed by a governmental subdivision under a
work permit or under an H-1b visa initially issued or extended for a combined period of
less than three years of employment but upon extension of the employment of the visa
beyond the three-year period, the foreign citizen must be reported for membership beginning
on the first of the month following the extension if the monthly earnings threshold as provided
under subdivision 2a, paragraph (a), is met;

(12) public hospital employees who elected not to participate as members of the
association before 1972 and who did not elect to participate from July 1, 1988, to October
1, 1988;

(13) except as provided in section 353.86, volunteer ambulance service personnel, as
defined in subdivision 35, but persons who serve as volunteer ambulance service personnel
may still qualify as public employees under subdivision 2 and may be members of the Public
Employees Retirement Association and participants in the general employees retirement
plan or the public employees police and fire plan, whichever applies, on the basis of
compensation received from public employment service other than service as volunteer
ambulance service personnel;

(14) except as provided in section 353.87, volunteer firefighters, as defined in subdivision
36, engaging in activities undertaken as part of volunteer firefighter duties, but a person
who is a volunteer firefighter may still qualify as a public employee under subdivision 2
and may be a member of the Public Employees Retirement Association and a participant
in the general employees retirement plan or the public employees police and fire plan,
whichever applies, on the basis of compensation received from public employment activities
other than those as a volunteer firefighter;

(15) pipefitters and associated trades personnel employed by Independent School District
No. 625, St. Paul, with coverage under a collective bargaining agreement by the pipefitters
local 455 pension plan who were either first employed after May 1, 1997, or, if first employed
before May 2, 1997, elected to be excluded under Laws 1997, chapter 241, article 2, section
12;

(16) electrical workers, plumbers, carpenters, and associated trades personnel who are
employed by Independent School District No. 625, St. Paul, or the city of St. Paul, who
have retirement coverage under a collective bargaining agreement by the Electrical Workers
Local 110 pension plan, the United Association Plumbers Local 34 pension plan, or the
pension plan applicable to Carpenters Local 322 who were either first employed after May
1, 2000, or, if first employed before May 2, 2000, elected to be excluded under Laws 2000,
chapter 461, article 7, section 5;

(17) bricklayers, allied craftworkers, cement masons, glaziers, glassworkers, painters,
allied tradesworkers, and plasterers who are employed by the city of St. Paul or Independent
School District No. 625, St. Paul, with coverage under a collective bargaining agreement
by the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 pension plan, the Cement Masons Local
633 pension plan, the Glaziers and Glassworkers Local L-1324 pension plan, the Painters
and Allied Trades Local 61 pension plan, or the Twin Cities Plasterers Local 265 pension
plan who were either first employed after May 1, 2001, or if first employed before May 2,
2001, elected to be excluded under Laws 2001, First Special Session chapter 10, article 10,
section 6;

(18) plumbers who are employed by the Metropolitan Airports Commission, with
coverage under a collective bargaining agreement by the Plumbers Local 34 pension plan,
who either were first employed after May 1, 2001, or if first employed before May 2, 2001,
elected to be excluded under Laws 2001, First Special Session chapter 10, article 10, section
6;

(19) employees who are hired after June 30, 2002, solely to fill seasonal positions under
subdivision 12b which are limited in duration by the employer to 185 consecutive calendar
days or less in each year of employment with the governmental subdivision;

(20) persons who are provided supported employment or work-study positions by a
governmental subdivision and who participate in an employment or industries program
maintained for the benefit of these persons where the governmental subdivision limits the
position's duration to up to five years, including persons participating in a federal or state
subsidized on-the-job training, work experience, senior citizen, youth, or unemployment
relief program where the training or work experience is not provided as a part of, or for,
future permanent public employment;

(21) independent contractors and the employees of independent contractors;

(22) reemployed annuitants of the association during the course of that reemployment;

(23) persons appointed to serve on a board or commission of a governmental subdivision
or an instrumentality thereof;

(24) persons employed as full-time fixed-route bus drivers by the St. Cloud Metropolitan
Transit Commission who are members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local
638 and who are, by virtue of that employment, members of the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters Central States pension plan; deleted text begin and
deleted text end

(25) electricians or pipefitters employed by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board,
with coverage under a collective bargaining agreement by the IBEW local 292, or pipefitters
local 539 pension plan, who were first employed before May 2, 2015, and who elected to
be excluded under Laws 2015, chapter 68, article 11, section 5 deleted text begin . deleted text end new text begin ; and
new text end

new text begin (26) laborers and associated trades personnel employed by the city of St. Paul or
Independent School District No. 625, St. Paul, who are designated as temporary employees
under a collective bargaining agreement and have retirement coverage by the Minnesota
Laborers Pension Fund, who were either first employed on or after June 1, 2018, or, if first
employed before June 1, 2018, who elected to be excluded under section 2.
new text end

(b) Any person performing the duties of a public officer in a position defined in
subdivision 2a, paragraph (a), clause (3), is not an independent contractor and is not an
employee of an independent contractor.

new text begin EFFECTIVE DATE. new text end

new text begin This section is effective the day following final enactment.
new text end

Sec. 2. new text begin CERTAIN ST. PAUL LABORERS AND ASSOCIATED TRADES
PERSONNEL; COVERAGE EXCLUSION ELECTION.
new text end

new text begin (a) A laborer or an associated trades person who is employed by the city of St. Paul or
Independent School District No. 625, St. Paul, before June 1, 2018, and is designated as a
temporary employee under a collective bargaining agreement and who has pension coverage
by the Minnesota Laborers Pension Fund may elect to be excluded from pension coverage
by the general employees retirement plan. The exclusion election under this section must
be made in writing on a form prescribed by the executive director and must be filed with
the executive director. The exclusion election is irrevocable.
new text end

new text begin (b) Authority to make the coverage exclusion under this section expires June 1, 2019.
new text end

new text begin EFFECTIVE DATE. new text end

new text begin This section is effective the day following final enactment.
new text end