3
Changes in Retirement Law Urged
Special OSEA Committee Notes Weaknesses
A special committee of the O SEA
in a mee|j5aJ-with' the state retire
ment board on August 2 presented a
i^ ^ ^ ^ ^ fb:^Bffirovihg, the retirement
system. The committee was composed
of Forrest Stewart, executive secre
c y ; P- M. Brandt, laws and legisla
tion director; Roy G. Green, actuary;
Loren R. White^ ^ ^ W ^^sident: and
Dr. Roy SarfdS a o f Oregon state col
lege. The committee requested offi
cial estimates of the cost to the; state
and employees in mee^Ba the sug
gested improvements.
The original obj ective of the Ore
gon public employees retirement law
was to pro vide a retirement annuity
for each member employee of ap
proximately one-half his last five
years average salary after 30 or more
yQ g > f service, with certain excep
tions. The plan as originally present-,
ed to the legislature provided an ade
quate annuity, but certain reserva
tions .were adopted which prevented
its attainment. These reservations
cause the plan iofrfjjgBifort of its orig
inal obj ective and in a manner which
was probably not intended by "/the'
legislature and which has not been
corrected by amendments adopted to
date. It fails to cope with the situa
tion brought about by itsigprupt ap-
^O^Btion 'at an unanticipated early
g i and the appl;igatiS B j i » Jpi'xed
retirement age with no p ro vision for
^ S ^ ^ n n u i^ ^ ^ B ith adequate prior
service.
Spetrficaily, there ^^Bplleral maj
or criticisms of the Act:
1. Inadgguaip provision is^made«lor
those retiring during the transition
period. -
2. The^ p | seraamB3^ment annuity \is
I computed on only a limited portion
of many employees’ salaries ( $2400
from 1946 to 1949; $3000 since
1949). This limits the amount that
can be received by many em
ployees upon retiring, if they re-
ceive I full benefit, to much less
than . one-half of thei^ ^ l^ ^ five
year’s salary. Few are now receiv
ing KB much as a fifty dollar ,^,
month pension.
3. If anH|empipy^^Wes after ten
years’ service but before retire
ment , his ac cumula ted contribu-
tions are not matched by the State.
4.
requirement of 15 years’ serv
ice before an employee is eligible
I for disability retirement aliowance
off-duty disability is ex-
cessive and should be reduced td
iob BI
5. The retirement age should be more
To|p»perly cornSphesjBfaults the
O SEA is considering appropriate Aleggi
It hopes to have
th^^BreparbdiMgiji^^^'Qvan^c^^f^fh^
session.
c S R on&fcgmnot, be?
reached onBpome of the proposals,
until due consideration h ili
been given to the cost both to the
^gab^^&^P the members of the realsa
BOSES Suggested measures which it is
believed are neétOÌ to correct the
above-mentioned faults,I are enum
erated below in the same order. I I
1. Two methods are under^Wnsider-
ation for correcting item 1.
(a) To w e the prior service à i- 1
I lpwance from $2.50 to $4.00 a
month for ea<g$V year of prior
service.