December 13, 2024
Circular Letter: 200-050-24
Topic: Announcements

To: All CalPERS Employers

Purpose

The purpose of this Circular Letter is to inform you of the working after retirement exceptions granted by Executive Order N-4-24 (PDF) on California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) retirees employed as retired annuitants (RAs) with a CalPERS contracting employer.

Background

Due to recent wildfire activity, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the counties of Butte, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Tehama. On October 4, 2024, the governor issued Executive Order N-4-24 to help these communities recover.

Work Hour Limitation Exceptions

To ensure adequate staffing and expedite disaster response and recovery, the 960-work hour limitation under Government (Gov.) Code sections 21224(a) and 7522.56(d) is suspended. By suspending the work hour limitation, any hours an RA works during the state of emergency in an impacted county covered by this executive order will not be counted toward the 960-hour fiscal year limit.

Wait Period Exceptions

The 180-day wait period requirement under Gov. Code 7522.56(f) and (g) is also suspended for RAs hired to ensure adequate staffing during the state of emergency.

In addition, under subdivision (c) of section 586.2 of Title 2 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR), the state of emergency exempts RAs from the 60-day bona fide separation requirement under subdivision (a)(2) of CCR section 586.2. However, under subdivision (a)(1) of CCR section 586.2, the prohibition of any predetermined agreement between an employer and an impending retiree who has not attained normal retirement age continues to remain in effect, consistent with federal law.

Start Dates

Start dates for each state of emergency by county are as follows:

• Butte (Thompson Fire)
  • July 3, 2024
• Butte and Tehama (Park Fire)
  • July 26, 2024
• Kern (Borel Fire)
  • July 3, 2024
• San Bernardino (Line Fire)
  • September 7, 2024
• Los Angeles and San Bernardino (Bridge Fire), Orange and Riverside (Airport Fire)
  • September 11, 2024

The suspension of the RA work hour limitation, the 60-day bona fide separation requirement, and the 180-day wait period requirements will remain in place until the state of emergency is lifted.

Continued Compliance

Agencies must continue to enroll and report RAs to us. The remaining working after retirement provisions in Gov. Code sections 21221(h) and 7522.56(e) will continue to apply:

• Compensation for the appointment shall not be less than the minimum monthly base salary nor exceed the maximum monthly base salary paid to other employees performing comparable duties, as listed on a publicly available pay schedule divided by 173.333 to equal an hourly rate.
• An RA shall not receive any benefit, incentive, compensation in lieu of benefits, or other form of compensation in addition to the hourly pay rate.

The executive order applies to work performed by RAs to ensure adequate staffing in the impacted counties. Organizations must report individuals working under these circumstances, as we will continue to monitor work hours for RAs and send communication when a violation is found.

For state agencies, the director of the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR) must be notified of any individual employed pursuant to these waivers. Notification should be emailed to CAStateofEmergency@calhr.ca.gov.

Public agencies and schools must notify us of any individual employed pursuant to these waivers. Notification should be emailed to ExecOrderReview@calpers.ca.gov.

We will continue to monitor the retiree’s employment to ensure compliance. If any potential violation is identified, we will immediately notify you and the retiree.

Questions

If you have questions, call our CalPERS Customer Contact Center at 888 CalPERS (or 888-225-7377888-225-7377).

 

Brad Hanson, Chief
Employer Account Management Division