Membership:
October 24, 2018:|
For members of the Cambridge Retirement System who receive earnings for services rendered in an additional position other than the position that establishes membership, within a unit of the Cambridge Retirement System, the earnings shall be considered regular compensation and therefore retirement deductions shall be taken from those earnings. The earnings shall be predictable and recurring and shall not be a bonus, an incentive, or overtime earnings.
October 29, 1996:
Permanent part-time employment will be any employee who is employed at least twenty (20) hours per week in a position or in more than one position so that when hours of employment are added together those hours equal at least twenty (20) hours per week.
All non-compensated appointed officials, whether members of board or commissions and the like who do not receive regular compensation as set forth under Chapter 32 are not eligible for membership in the Retirement System.
All non-elected appointed officials, board members and commissioners who receive compensation and work less than twenty (20) hours per week may join the Cambridge Retirement System. They shall only be credited with one (1) year of creditable service for every three (3) years of service rendered in such capacity, so long as the member does not receive in excess of one (1) year of combined service for duel functions in any calendar year
CETA employees and Grant funded employees shall become members of the retirement system. If these employees later become employed by the City, they will be allowed to make payment toward creditable service for the time they worked under such programs.
Creditable Service:
October 29, 1996:
Any permanent employee of the Cambridge School Department who is not a certified teacher and therefore eligible to apply for membership in the Retirement System will be given credit for a full year of creditable service if they are employed full time for the job they perform if the job only occurs during the school year.
Permanent full-time employment in the School System would be the maximum number of hours that are assigned to the job function so long as the number equals 20 hours per week. The creditable service will accrue as full-time so long as the member continues in that category (position) to retirement.
Creditable service for all part-time, provisional, temporary, temporary provisional, per diem, seasonal or intermittent employment and/or service shall be computed to credit the member for that proportion of a normal year which the number of days actually worked during that year bears to the normal working year from the department under which the employee works.
Creditable service for all part-time salaried employees will be pro-rated on the basis of the proportion which the actual salary received bears to what the salary would be for the same position if it were full-time.
Regular Compensation:
April 21, 2000
Motor Vehicle Use
A member who is provided a motor vehicle for personal use by the employer as a necessary and usual requirement of the member’s employment shall be credited annually as regular compensation an amount which shall be determined by adopting the taxable value of same as set by the member’s employer, and as appearing on the member’s W-2 form. Said regular compensation shall be approved upon payment of appropriate retirement contribution by the member.
A member who receives a standard and regularly paid allowance from the employer for use of the member’s personal motor vehicle in the course of performing the member’s duties, as appearing on the member’s W-2 form, shall be credited annually with the additional regular compensation in the amount of said allowance upon payment of appropriate retirement contribution by the member.
Varying, sporadic or irregular reimbursement by the employer to a member for use of the member’s motor vehicle shall not be considered regular compensation.
March 7, 1989
Regular compensation for firefighters shall include:
- regular base pay
- working out of grade
- holiday pay only as authorized by law
- hazardous duty pay or educational incentive
- longevity
- weekend differential
- night differential
- E.M.T. compensation
- 1st responder compensation
Miscellaneous:
March 8, 2020:
Correction of Errors under G.L. c. 32, 20(5)(c)(2)
When a correction of an error by the Cambridge Retirement Board of an underpayment or a non-payment of a pension or a benefit to a member or beneficiary of the Cambridge Retirement System which results in a need to make a retroactive payment of a benefit, the payment shall include interest for the period of underpayment or of non-payment at the rate determined, on an annual basis, by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission pursuant to G.L. c. 32, § 22(6).
In all cases of correction of an error by the Cambridge Retirement Board of an overpayment of a pension or a benefit to a member or beneficiary of the System, the amount of overpayment shall be due from the member or beneficiary, along with interest at the rate determined, on an annual basis, by the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission pursuant to G.L. c. 32, § 22(6).
As stated in PERAC Memorandum #32 of 2013, because of the judgement of the Supreme Judicial Court in Herrick v. Essex Regional Retirement Board, interest shall be, considered to be the actuarial equivalent of the adjustment to the pension or benefit as set forth in G.L. c. 32, § 20(5)(c)(2).
May 18, 1998:
Group Classification:
Any employee of the Emergency Telecommunications Department holding the title with job description of the following: “Emergency Telecommunications Dispatcher” and “Fire Alarm Operator” replaces the positions of “fire or police signal operators or signal maintenance repairman,” as stated in Chapter 32, s. 3(2)(G), Group 2.