Rhode Island § 36-9-44 - Retirement System — Membership and Service Credits

§ 36-9-44. Narragansett Bay Water Quality Management District Commission — Transferred employees.

(a) Definitions. — For the purposes of this section:

(1) “Commission” means the Narragansett Bay Water Quality Management District Commission, a public corporation of the state of Rhode Island.

(2) “Employee contribution accumulation” means an amount equal to the total member contributions of the transferred employees which were picked up and paid by the commission to the trust maintained by the commission to receive such contributions during the interim period plus actual earnings on such contributions. The employee contribution accumulation attributable to each transferred employee shall be treated as such employee’s accumulated contributions for purposes of chapters 9 and 20 of this title.

(3) “Employer contribution accumulation” means an amount equal to the required contributions applicable to the interim period.

(4) “Interim period” means the period from the transfer date to the date that the requirement of subsection (c) is satisfied.

(5) “Required contribution” means the amount or amounts required to be contributed to the retirement system by the commission in addition to the member contributions of the transferred employees in order to fund the benefits attributable to the transferred employees earned after the transfer date in accordance with the provisions of this section. The amount of the required contribution for any relevant period following the transfer date shall be an amount determined by multiplying the rate percent established in accordance with § 36-10-2 for the period by the compensation paid by the commission to the transferred employees during such period. The commission shall make its required contribution, other than the required contribution for the interim period, in bi-weekly installments, each to be made within three (3) business days following the pay day. The required contribution applicable to the interim period shall be made in accordance with the provisions of section (c) of this chapter.

(6) “Transfer date” means the effective date of this section.

(7) “Transferred employee” means any individual who was an employee of the commission on the date immediately preceding the transfer date, was an active member of the retirement system on the date immediately preceding the transfer date and who, from and after the transfer date, is an employee of the commission who is continuously a collectively bargained employee (within the meaning of the regulations issued under § 410(b)(3)(a) of the Internal Revenue Code [26 U.S.C. § 410(b)(3)(a)]).

(b) Subject to subsections (c), (d) and (e) of this section, the period of service of any transferred employee with the commission after the transfer date shall be treated as service as an employee of the state of Rhode Island for purposes of chapters 8, 9 and 10 of this title.

(c) The provisions of subsection (b) of this section shall not apply unless within ninety (90) days following the date of enactment of this section, the commission transfers, or causes to have transferred from a trustee or other custodian, to the retirement system, an amount equal to the sum of the employee contribution accumulation and the employer contribution accumulation.

(d) Notwithstanding the foregoing, any individual who is a transferred employee shall not be treated as an employee of the state of Rhode Island under subsection (b) for any period of employment during which he or she elects to participate in any other retirement income benefit funded by the commission under a retirement plan sponsored by the commission and intended to qualify under § 401(a) or § 408(k) [26 U.S.C. § 401(a) or § 408(k)] of the United States Internal Revenue Code.

(e) Provided the requirement of subsection (c) of this section is satisfied:

(1) Any retirement or death benefit provided to or on behalf of a transferred employee during the interim period by the commission, or a trust established and maintained by the commission shall be considered provided by the retirement system and the amount of benefit paid by the commission or the trustee, shall reduce the amount required to be transferred to the retirement system under subsection (c) of this section.

(2) Subsection (b) shall continue to apply after the date of transfer specified in subsection (c) with respect to the period for which the commission thereafter makes its required contribution to the retirement system. In the event that the commission ceases to make its required contribution, the transferred employees shall be considered inactive members of the retirement system as of the date of such cessation.

(3) The member contributions of the transferred employees shall be considered picked up and paid by the commission to the retirement system after the interim period pursuant to the provisions of § 414(h)(2) [26 U.S.C. § 414(h)(2)] of the United States Internal Revenue Code. The contributions so picked up shall be treated as employer contributions in determining the tax treatment under the United States Internal Revenue Code, and shall not be included as gross income of the transferred employee until such time as they are distributed.

(4) All employees (whether or not employed on the transfer date) who are members of a collective bargaining unit that, on the transfer date, had members who were contributing members of the employees’ retirement system shall be contributing members of the employees’ retirement system if so provided by a collective bargaining agreement.