SF 1684

as introduced - 89th Legislature (2015 - 2016) Posted on 09/28/2015 01:57pm

A bill for an act
relating to retirement; Public Employees Retirement Association; excluding
certain Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board employees; amending
Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 353.01, subdivision 2b.

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

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, 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the applicable amount, the stipulation is no longer valid and contributions must be made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 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; deleted text begin and
deleted text end

(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 . deleted text end new text begin ; and
new text end

new text begin (25) electricians or pipefitters employed by the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation
Board, with coverage under a collective bargaining agreement by the IBEW local 292, or
pipefitters local 539 pension plan, who: (i) were first employed after May 1, 2015; or (ii)
if first employed before May 2, 2015, 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.

Sec. 2. new text begin PUBLIC PENSION COVERAGE EXCLUSION FOR CERTAIN
TRADES PERSONNEL.
new text end

new text begin An electrician or pipefitter who is employed by the Minneapolis Parks and
Recreation Board on the effective date of this section and who has pension coverage
under a collective bargaining agreement by the IBEW local 292, or pipefitters local 539,
may elect to be excluded from pension coverage by the Public Employees Retirement
Association. The exclusion election must be made in writing on a form prescribed by the
executive director of the Public Employees Retirement Association and must be filed
with the executive director. The exclusion election is irrevocable. Authority to make the
coverage exclusion expires on January 1, 2016.
new text end