Alabama § 36-27-49.4

§ 36-27-49.4.

(a)(1) A member of the Teachers’ Retirement System or a member of the Employees’ Retirement System may receive up to four years of creditable service for federal nonmilitary employment rendered for the United States, provided: (i) the member of the retirement system claiming the credit shall have attained not less than 10 years of contributing membership service credit, exclusive of military service credit, under the retirement system of which he or she is a member; and (ii) the member performs and complies with the conditions prescribed in subdivision (2).

(2) Before receiving credit pursuant to subdivision (1) the member shall first:

a. Before the date of his or her retirement and for each year of service credit, contribute to his or her respective retirement system the full actuarially determined cost for each year of claimed service as determined by the system’s actuary;

b. Have the public retirement system of the federal government certify in writing to the applicable state retirement system that the member had credit under the federal retirement system for the service claimed; and

c. Claim, purchase, and receive credit for qualified federal service in increments of not less than one year. If the member’s total or balance of qualified federal service is less than one year, he or she may claim and purchase credit for the entire time period.

(b) Any provision of this section to the contrary notwithstanding, a member may not receive credit for federal employment rendered for the United States if, at the time of retirement, he or she has credit or is entitled to any benefits whatsoever for the same service under any other retirement or pension plan which is wholly or partly funded from public funds. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to apply to participation in the federal Social Security program. If federal nonmilitary employment service credit is not qualified, any contribution made pursuant to this section by a member shall be refunded to him or her.

(c) The applicable retirement system may deduct in 12 equal installments, from the retirement allowance payable to a retired member, any additional contribution necessary to pay the administrative cost incurred in granting the credit under this section if the applicable Board of Control and consulting actuary for the system determine that the amounts contributed by the member pursuant to this section are insufficient to pay the administrative cost.