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Coverages now pensionable
Oct 18, 2007 4:05 PM
The UFT’s 2002 court victory making per-session work pensionable became a little sweeter this October when the city and the Teachers’ Retirement System agreed that coverages should be pensionable.
Income that teachers earn for covering a class outside their regular schedule will now count as part of final average salaries for the purpose of calculating pensions.
The pensions of educators who have retired since 1993 will be recalculated on that basis; educators will receive retroactive payments for up to six years — 2001 forward.
“This is great news for our in-service members — and our retirees,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten.
The agreement is the fruit of years of work by the UFT to get the city and the Teachers’ Retirement System to acknowledge that the 2002 court ruling should apply to regular coverages.
At the time of the court ruling, the city would not concede that coverages were per-session work.
The UFT questioned that assumption in formal inquiries that it filed with the TRS. Those inquiries prompted a series of discussions between attorneys for the city and the UFT that provided the way to this settlement.
In October, the city finally agreed to extend pensionability to coverages.
At its Oct. 25 board meeting, the TRS plans to ratify a resolution it passed making the policy official.
Generally speaking, an educator’s final average salary is calculated for pension purposes based on his or her final years of employment.
Details about retroactive payments to retirees will be published in the New York Teacher as soon as they become available.
