Terminating the Employment Relationship

2.

’37 A CT R ETIREMENTS

a. Minimum Requirements The following statutory minimum requirements are generally followed by many ’37 Act e mployers. Some ’37 Act employers may have adopted different minimum requirements.

An individual is eligible to retire from service from a ’37 Act system if the individual has either:

Earned at least 10 years of credited service and reached the minimum retirement age of 55;

Completed 30 years of service regardless of age; or Reached 70 years of age regardless of years of service. 291

Except that, any safety member is eligible to retire from service if the member has either:

Completed 10 years of continuous service and reached the minimum retirement age of 50;

Completed 20 years of service regardless of age; or Reached the age of mandatory retirement, if any. 292

These are general minimum requirements. Some ’37 Act agencies may have different minimum requirements.

b. Mandatory Retirement A ’37 Act agency may be able to establish a mandatory retirement age of 60 for local safety members through adoption of a resolution if the age requirement is a “bona fide occupational qualification” consistent with the Fair Employment and Housing Act and Age Discrimination in Employment Act. 293 However, employers seeking to adopt such a resolution should first consult with legal counsel. C. E ARLY R ETIREMENT I NCENTIVES This portion of the workbook applies to all California public employers and is not limited entirely to PERS or ’37 Act agencies . However , there is some discussion for PERS or ’37 Act agencies at the end of this Section. Early retirement incentives are monetary or benefit awards intended to entice current employees at or near the age of retirement to retire. The benefits to employers may include avoidance of layoffs and a reduction in labor costs when senior employees are replaced with more junior employees or by no new employees at all. The benefit to an employee is the ability to retire earlier without the monetary loss that would typically result from an earlier retirement.

Terminating the Employment Relationship ©2022 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 82