PCCFFAP PT PERS

PERS and Part-Time Instructors

Individual Account Plan (IAP) Statements

In 2005, the administration of PCC used a loophole in the new Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP) legislation to cease contributions based on FTE to PERS/OPSRP accounts for part-time faculty . As a result, the college chose to withhold contributions for 2004 and 2005. After notifying our members, the American Federation of Teachers-Oregon was successful in getting legislation passed in the Oregon Legislature to rectify this. Employers are once again required to calculate FTE for part-time teachers according to FTE workload (as opposed to only contact hours spent in the classroom).

As a result of the new law, in August 2005, the college notified PERS that contributions for 2004 and 2005 would be made retroactively for eligible part-time faculty. As of November 2006, PERS has just begun working on factoring the FTE for contributions for PCC part-time faculty to PERS 2004 and 2005 accounts. As of summer 2007, PCC part-time instructors should have 2004 contribution credited on their IAP statements. 2005 contributions still remain uncredited, though. It seems that the PERS software system (JClarity Software) was upgraded this year and has a bug. The problem is that 2005 wages which were originally eligible for IAP contributions were then made ineligible by PCC. The solution now is to make them eligible again, but the software system sees this change as a double-negative and will not allow it. PERS expects to have a fix for this bug some time in in summer 2007. IAP contributions for 2004 were done by PERS prior to their software upgrade, so you that is why they appear on the most recent IAP statements.

The reason that IAPs for part-time faculty were made ineligible for PERS/OPSRP in 2004 and 2005 goes back to the PERS reform legislation of late 2003. That legislation inadvertently left out the requirement that part-time faculty over an average 0.5 PERS FTE per year be eligible for IAP contributions. The PCC administration chose to interpret that to mean they should withhold contributions (even though other colleges chose to keep on contributing to IAPs for eligible part-time faculty, since the law did not forbid it, either). Our union, the American Federation of Teachers-Oregon, was succeeded in getting the original clause with eligibility requirements for part-time faculty re-enacted. Between PCC and PERS, it has taken this long to re-credit those accounts. PERS has always re-credited accounts with interest and we expect that to be the case here.

Part-Time Faculty Eligibility for PERS and OPSRP

In 2003, legislation was passed to reform the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and to set up a new system, Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP). As a result, employees who began employment for a PERS employer through August 29, 2003 were PERS members, while those who started subsequent to that date became members of the OPSRP plan. While some of the plan and pension details differ, all eligible part-time faculty, whether originally in PERS or OPSRP, currently receive contributions of 6% of their salary to the IAPs (Individual Account Plans) in OPSRP. As agreed in our contract, these 6% contributions are paid by the college and are not deducted from your gross pay.

PERS FTE Calculation at PCC

The PERS/OPSRP minimum to be eligible for these IAP contributions is either 600 hours of work per year, or the equivalent of that: 1.5 PERS FTE per year.

Full-time faculty work 1.0 FTE for 1 term, therefore 3.0 FTE for 1 year (3 terms: Fall/Winter/Spring). PERS intends for part-time faculty to work at least half -time, 1.5 FTE, to qualify for PERS contributions (based on 0.5 PERS FTE for three terms a year or 0.375 PERS FTE over four terms a year).

The PERS FTE differs slightly from the regular departmental FTE. The part-time workload is slightly less than the full-time workload because part-time instructors do not perform the full amount of extra-curricular work (e.g., committees and meetings) that full-time instructors do. Therefore, the Faculty Federation and the Administration have come to an agreement over the years for a factor of 0.83 to represent the actual workload for PT faculty. The FT half-time load, 1.5 FTE for 1 year divided by the PT equivalency, 0.83 arrives at PT half-time load for PERS of 1.81 FTE per year.

Part-time faculty have to teach at least enough credits to meet the 1.81 FTE for a year to be equivalent to the 600-hour minimum and be able to contribute to PERS. The three different pay categories have different teaching load factors according to the amount of time they require of the teacher (see Article 6.22).

Lecture                  .068
Lecture/Lab           .054
Lab                       .046

Lecture:                 27 hours X .068 = 1.84 FTE
Lecture/Lab:          34 hours X .054 = 1.84 FTE
Lab:                      40 hours X .046= 1.84 FTE

Any other employment for PERS eligible positions in Oregon should also be added into the cumulative 600 hour yearly minimum for the calendar year for PERS eligibility .

There are two ways to check on your PERS contributions from PCC:

1. Check a pay stub. If the college contributed the 6% pick-up to your PERS/OPSRP account, you should see this deduction on the back side of the pay stub at the bottom. Employees receiving automatic deposits can call the payroll department and request a paper pay stub be mailed to them each pay period.

2. Log on to your employee account at MyPCC: https://my.pcc.edu/cp/home/displaylogin
log in to MyPCC;
click on the Employee tab
click on Banweb Main Menu
click on Employee Services
click on Benefits and Deductions
click on Retirement Plans
click on Contributions or Deductions (it's real tiny at the bottom of the page).
You can then select months and years to see the amount of your past monthly contributions to PERS/OPSRP.