|
It has come to our attention that some municipalities are not enrolling their police employees who are employed on permanent, regularly scheduled basis for at least an average of thirty hours per week in MPERS, as required by law.
To be clear, ALL municipalities are required by law to enroll their police employees in MPERS. Size doesn't matter. And it's irrelevant whether they also contribute to Social Security or whether they have actually budgeted for MPERS contributions. The legislation and jurisprudence are clear on this.
Specifically, some municipalities mistakenly believe that they are somehow exempt from mandatorily enrolling their full-time police employees, because their employees are also covered under Social Security. This is incorrect, and you can read more about it here.
The bottom line is that even these specific employers must first enroll a police employee in MPERS at the time of his employment. The employee must remain enrolled until he executes and files with MPERS an affidavit stating that his election not to be a member is of his own free will and is his own voluntary act and deed.
If anyone's asking, we believe it's not advisable for any employee to actually do this. They'd be potentially forgoing valuable retirement, disability, or survivor benefits. If your employer slips you a R.S. 11:157 affidavit, it's ok to tell them, thanks, but no thanks (or just place it in File 13). You can always opt out later and receive a refund of your employee contributions.
Enrolling full-time police employees in MPERS should be a regular part of the human resource onboarding process. All employers require new employees to complete government forms such as W-4s, L-4s, I-9s, etc. Completing an MPERS member enrollment form is not difficult, and operators are standing by to help clerks or other responsible officials. Actually, it's all going to be done electronically eventually.
Alarmingly, we have reason to believe that at least one municipality withholds (or has, in the past, withheld) employees’ paychecks until the employees submit an affidavit opting out of MPERS membership. If true, this is a blatantly illegal act that would also (in our opinion) likely constitute malfeasance in office.
No one deserves to be denied the retirement, disability, or survivor benefits that they are entitled to by law. But that's what potentially could happen (and has likely already happened) when these employees aren't enrolled.
Finally, those municipalities who don’t enroll their police officers as required by law aren’t only hurting their own police officers. They are hurting their fellow municipalities by causing a higher employer contribution rate for those who follow the law.
We are happy to work with all employers of full-time police employees to ensure their compliance. Please contact us if you have any questions or know of any employees who should have been, but aren't, enrolled.
| 
