US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

§5A-1-10. Public employee leave benefit analysis board created; purpose; leave benefit buy-back study authorized; factors to be considered; and report to the Legislature.

(a) There is hereby created a public employee leave benefit analysis board. The initial and primary purpose of the board is to analyze the fiscal impact on the state, and on the several county boards of education whose employees participate in the public employees insurance agency plan, the ability of participating employees upon retirement to convert accrued annual and sick leave benefits for extended insurance coverage through the public employees insurance agency or for enhanced retirement benefits pursuant to section thirteen, article sixteen, chapter five of this code. The board shall determine the feasibility of instituting a voluntary leave benefit buy-back program under which employers would pay participating employees to buy back their accrued leave benefits. The board shall focus first on employees subject to subsection (c), section thirteen, article sixteen, chapter five of this code. If the board determines such a program would be feasible and cost effective, in comparison to the projected costs of continuing to maintain the conversion of accrued leave for extended insurance coverage and/or enhanced retirement benefits, the board shall also develop rules for the implementation and administration of such a buy-back program. The board shall complete its analysis and report its findings and recommendations with regard to this subject to the Legislature on or before the first day of September, two thousand one. If, upon receipt of such report, the Legislature determines that the buy-back program should be implemented, it shall adopt the report of the board by concurrent resolution and no further action of the Legislature shall be required to authorize implementation of the board's recommendations.
(b) The board created in this section shall consist of five voting members as follows: The secretary of the department of administration, who shall serve as its chair; the executive director of the consolidated public retirement board; the director of the public employees insurance agency; the director of the division of personnel; and the state superintendent of schools or the superintendent's designee. Four members of the Legislature, two appointed by the president of the Senate and two appointed by the speaker of the House of Delegates, shall also serve as nonvoting members, ex officio. It shall meet upon the call of the chair and a simple majority of the members shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
(c) The expenses incurred by the board in studying the feasibility of a voluntary buy-back program and developing rules for implementation, if any, may not exceed one hundred thousand dollars and shall be paid out of funds appropriated therefor by the Legislature to the department of administration.
(d) The board's analysis of a voluntary leave benefit buy-back program shall be based upon an appropriate actuarial study, as determined by the board, and shall include at a minimum the following:
(1) A full cost/benefit analysis which takes into account the costs for the current sick and annual leave conversion for the premium offset for extended insurance coverage as well as for enhanced retirement benefits and projections for future costs associated with such leave benefit conversion, stated in terms of present value and as amortized over an appropriate period, as determined by the board. This analysis shall also take into account the ways in which the leave conversion programs affect employees' use of sick and annual leave benefits during active employment, as well as upon retirement;
(2) The analysis shall be based on detailed actuarial assumptions in order to assure that cost projections are as accurate as possible: Assumptions shall be developed using data provided by the public employees insurance agency, the division of personnel and the consolidated public retirement board and shall be based on individual employee and participant data rather than summary data; actual experience for employees and retirees shall be considered, as well as an actuarially appropriate range of assumptions for projecting future costs; all calculations of future costs shall take into account projected increases in medical and prescription drug costs; and all assumptions used for any calculation shall be clearly stated, along with their basis;
(3) In order to be considered feasible or cost effective, the leave benefit buy-back program must assure a monetary savings to the state, in comparison to maintaining the conversion of leave benefits upon retirement;
(4) Any leave benefit buy-back program shall be based on the voluntary participation of affected employees;
(5) The design of any leave benefit buy-back program shall anticipate payroll tax implications for public employers, in addition to taking into consideration possible tax implications for employees who might choose to participate;
(6) The design of any leave benefit buy-back program shall provide that if employee demand exceeds revenues appropriated by the Legislature for the program in any fiscal year, eligibility for participation shall be based on seniority, as measured by total years or parts thereof of credited service with a participating employer;
(7) The design of any leave benefit buy-back program shall provide that any employee who elects to participate may not thereafter file an employee grievance or maintain a civil action relating to participation in the program or the benefits derived therefrom; and
(8) The design of any leave benefit buy-back program shall presume limitations on the future accrual of leave benefits which may be converted for extended insurance coverage or enhanced retirement benefits by employees who elect to participate in the program.
(e) Any rule developed by the board for implementing or administering a leave benefit buy-back program as provided in this section, including the rate of exchange to be offered to employees who elect to participate, shall be considered interpretative or procedural in nature and is not subject to rule-making review by the Legislature, as provided in chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
(f) In addition to the factors to be included in the analysis of a leave benefit buy-back program enumerated above, the board created in this section shall also consider the salient issues surrounding the provision of long-term disability insurance coverage in lieu of certain benefits currently provided, retirement disability and employee donation of leave benefits, as authorized by section twenty-seven, article six, chapter twenty-nine of this code, including the potential cost and benefit thereof relative to the total benefit/compensation package made available to state employees and employees of county boards of education.
(g) In furtherance of the board's purposes as stated in this section, the department of administration is hereby authorized to require all state spending units to collect, compile, maintain and report data regarding employee sick and annual leave use, balances, accrual and conversion. The superintendent of the state board of education is hereby granted the same authority with respect to the several county boards of education.
(h) It is the intention of the Legislature that the provisions of this section shall supersede and govern any other provision of this code or legislative rule to the contrary.