Terminating the Employment Relationship

Advanced disability pension payments made by a local agency contracting with CalPERS will be reimbursed to the agency by CalPERS. 225 The agency must notify CalPERS of the amount of the advanced disability pension payments and when they will commence. After final adjudication on the disability retirement application, if the application is denied, the local agency and the employee shall arrange for the employee to repay any advanced disability pension payments received by the employee. The repayment plan shall take into account the employee’s ability to repay the payments received. If repayment is not made according to the repayment plan, the local agency may take reasonable steps, including litigation, to recover the payments advanced. 226 The amount of the advanced disability pension payments shall be no less than 50% of the estimated highest average annual compensation earnable by the employee during the three consecutive years of employment immediately preceding the effective date of his or her disability retirement, unless the employee chooses an optional settlement in the permanent disability retirement application process which would reduce the pension allowance below 50%, in which case, the advanced pension payments shall be set at an amount equal to the disability pension allowance. Advanced disability pension payments are not considered “salary” for any purpose, but rather, pension payments. 227 i. CalPERS CalPERS makes the initial determination on acceptance of the application of a disability retirement for miscellaneous members. For local safety members, the governing body or its delegate determines if the local safety member shall receive a disability retirement. If the application for retirement is accepted by CalPERS (or the governing board of the public agency in the case of local safety members), the effective date of disability retirement will be the day following the last day of regular pay, if the application was filed within nine months after discontinuance of employment. CalPERS will set the effective date of retirement for miscellaneous members. If the application was made more than nine months after discontinuance of the member’s service, the effective date is determined considering whether, under the circumstances, it can be made in a retroactive manner, or if no date is indicated, the effective date will be the first of the month the application is received. A local safety employee’s effective date of retirement may not be earlier than the date upon which leave of absence without loss of salary under Labor Code section 4850 terminates (up to a maximum of one year), or the earlier date during that leave as of which the disability is found by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board to be permanent and stationary, unless the employee consents to an earlier retirement date. 228 A finding by an agreed upon or qualified medical examiner that the local safety member is “permanent and stationary” does not necessarily permit an employer to activate the disability retirement. Instead, it is the Workers Compensation Appeals Board that must make a finding that the employee is permanent and stationary in order 6. A FTER THE A PPLICATION IS A CCEPTED OR D ENIED a. What is the Effective Date of Retirement?

Terminating the Employment Relationship ©2019 (s) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 66