Report Title:

Hawaii County Package; Re-employment of Retirees

 

Description:

Allows the state and county governments to hire retired state or county public employees that are currently receiving public sector pension or retirement benefits.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

2205

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

Relating to the re-employment of retirees by the state or counties.

 

 

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

 


SECTION 1.  The legislature recognizes the changing demographics of the workforce; that in fact, the workforce is aging with an increasing number of state and county employees becoming eligible to retire with full retirement benefits.  The legislature also recognizes that life spans have increased, not only because of advances in medicine and technology, but because people are choosing to live healthier lifestyles.

Ken Dychtwald, noted gerontologist, notes that older adults are blessed with longer, healthier lives, and are looking for a more fulfilling life (not the typical retirement) and wanting to stay longer or enter back into the workforce.  Dychtwald offers that we are in an era where people will grow old slower, live longer, and may never retire, or may retire three or more times as they start new careers, go back to school, or even raise a second or third family.

Myths associated with older workers have been found to be just myths.  Older workers do not get into more on-the-job accidents than other workers, they do not have higher rates of absenteeism, and their job performance does not decrease with age.

The legislature understands that with the low unemployment the State is now experiencing, state and county governments have more vacancies occurring with a dwindling number of qualified applicants.  These government entities, especially the state, have many jobs categorized as hard-to-fill, or as being in a labor-shortage category.

While retired state and county employees are now permitted to work for temporary periods of eighty-nine consecutive days or for less than twenty hours per week without jeopardizing their retirement benefits, there is no reason not to afford the state and county governments the ability to hire retired state and county government employees on a full-time basis, considering too that if they do not work for government, they will instead work for the private sector.  This Act will allow the state and county employers to recruit from the same group of qualified applicants as do private employers and give the government employers equal footing with the private sector employer in employing state and county retirees.

The legislature believes this Act will strike a balance between the state and county governments' need to hire skilled and qualified employees and retired state and county government employees’ desire to continue to work for state or county government.  This Act will allow retired state and county government employees to again work for the state or county governments without incurring any negative retirement consequences, such as the forfeiture of retirement benefits already earned and being collected by employees. 

SECTION 2.  Chapter 88, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

     "§88-     Re-employment of state and county retirees.  (a)  Appointing authorities in the state and county governments may employ a retired state or county public employee who is receiving retirement benefits under this chapter in any civil service or exempt position.  Each jurisdiction shall make employer contributions for the rehired employee to the pension accumulation fund in accordance with section 88-122(e).  A rehired employee shall not be required to contribute to the pension accumulation fund.  If the position to be filled with a rehired employee is a civil service position, civil service procedures shall be followed in recruiting and selecting any retirant for the position.  However, to qualify for full-time employment, a retirant shall have been retired from a state or county public employee position for at least six months from the employee’s date of retirement.  The chief human resources executive of the appropriate jurisdiction shall certify that any retirant hired under this section has, in fact, been hired in accordance with applicable civil service laws and this section.

     (b)  Notwithstanding sections 88-21, 88-42.5, 88-43, 88-45, 88-46, 88-98, 88-273, 88-326, 88-344, and any other contrary law, a retired state or county public employee who is hired by the state or county under this section:

     (1)  Shall not earn retirement service credit, contribute to the system, or gain additional system benefits as a result of the retirant’s subsequent employment with the state or a county; and

     (2)  Shall continue to receive the normal retirement benefits and medical retirement benefits without penalty.

     (c)  This section shall not preclude a retirant from returning to work and relinquishing the retirant’s retirement benefits to earn additional service credit and gain additional retirement benefits for a future retirement date as may be allowed by this chapter.

     (d)  For the purposes of this section:

     "Jurisdiction" means the city and county of Honolulu; the counties of Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai; the department of education; the judiciary; the Hawaii health systems corporation; the office of Hawaiian affairs; the state executive branch; and the legislative branches of the state and county governments.

     "State executive branch" means all the departments of the executive branch of the state government, except the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii health systems corporation, and the department of education."

     SECTION 3.  Each jurisdiction, using the provisions of section 2 of this Act, shall report annually to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session of the legislature on the number of positions filled pursuant to this Act.  The report shall include but not be limited to job title, salary, and the length of time each retirant was hired and other pertinent information.

     SECTION 4.  New statutory material is underscored.


     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2008.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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