FROM: Barbara Hannah, Chief Counsel
SUBJECT: Implementation of the exclusion of Night Standby (D06).
RECOMMENDATION:
title
Adopt [Proposed] SBCERA Resolution No. 2024-6 regarding the implementation of exclusion of Night Standby (D06).
body
BACKGROUND:
The SBCERA Board of Retirement (Board) is required by Government Code section 31461 and 31542, as well as Board Benefits Policy No. 026 (Compensation Earnable and Pensionable Compensation) to determine what items of a member compensation are included or excluded in employee compensation upon which appropriate contribution rates should be applied and upon which retirement benefits are calculated.
On July 30, 2020, the California Supreme Court filed its decision in Alameda County Deputy Sheriff's Assn. v. Alameda County Employees' Retirement Assn., (2020) 9 Cal.5th 1032 (Alameda decision). The Alameda decision overturns certain legal and equitable determinations made in the lower court of appeal decision, and concludes that all amendments to the definition of compensation earnable in Government Code section 31461, enacted as a result of the Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 ("PEPRA") and related statutory changes to CERL, effective January 1, 2013 are constitutional, and that CERL retirement boards may not be contractually bound or estopped by settlement agreements, board resolutions, or other similar actions, from implementing those amendments. The Alameda decision further determines that CERL retirement boards may not include items in compensation earnable that section 31461 requires them to exclude. As a result of the Alameda decision, the Board adopted Resolutions 2020-5 and 2020-9 excluding Night Standby (D06) pursuant to Government Code section 31461.
Night standby (D06) is paid to personnel who perform services, i.e. processing laboratory tests at $10 per test, who are not assigned to the night shift, but who volunteer to work during the hours of 11:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., whic...
Click here for full text