CHAPTER 100
DELAWARE STATE EMPLOYEES' PENSION ACT WITH REFERENCE TO CERTAIN PERSONS NOT COVERED BY PREVIOUS ACT
AN ACT TO AMEND "AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE PAYMENT OF PENSION BENEFITS TO CERTAIN STATE EMPLOYEES, FIXING AGES OF RETIREMENT, ESTABLISHING BENEFITS PAYABLE AND THE SOURCE OF PAYMENT THEREOF, PROVIDING FOR APPLICATIONS FOR PENSIONS AND THE PROCEDURE TO BE FOLLOWED WITH RESPECT THERETO, PROVIDING THAT PENSION BENEFITS SHALL BE FREE OF ATTACHMENT AND NONASSIGNABLE, AND ALSO PROVIDING FOR THE REDUCTION OF BENEFITS UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS", WITH REFERENCE TO THE STATUS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED IN THE ARMED SERVICES, EMPLOYEES ON LEAVES OF ABSENCE, IN CERTAIN CASES, EMPLOYEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE, AND CERTAIN EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE RECEIVED COMPENSATION ON AN HOURLY OR WEEKLY BASIS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That Chapter 104 of Volume 45, Laws of Delaware, 1945, be and the same is hereby further amended by striking out all of Section 3 of said Chapter and inserting and enacting in lieu of the Section so stricken out a new Section 3 as follows:
Section 3. Covered Employee Defined:--An employee shall be considered in "covered employment" while the employee receives, or in the case of service prior to the enactment of this legislation, has received a regular salary or wage wholly or in part directly from the State Treasury, and/or froth the Treasury through the following agencies within the State that are wholly or partly supported by the State and hereinafter referred to as subsidized agencies: State Board of Health, Old Age Welfare Commission and its sub-divisions, University of Delaware, School Districts which are a part of the State School System, and the Board of Public Education in Wilmington; provided that an employee of the Board of Public Education in Wilmington and the University of Delaware shall be considered in "covered employment" while the employee receives, or in case of service prior to the enactment of this legislation has received, a regular salary wholly or in part from or through the State Treasury, and (1) and/or from the Treasurer of the City of Wilmington or (2) and/or from the Treasurer of the University of Delaware; and provided further, where the employee is paid wholly or in part, from the sources herein mentioned other than the State Treasury, that a full and complete record of all such payments, shall be made monthly to the State Treasurer, which record shall be preserved by such official with all other records pertaining to the Delaware State Employees' Pension Act; and provided further, however, that an employee shall not be considered in covered employment (a) while employed in an office to which said employee had been elected by popular vote at a regular State election, or (b) while covered or potentially covered by the State Pension Act as a member of the State Police.
An employee who shall be in covered employment on the date of retirement and who shall have served in covered employment for at least fifteen years during the period that ends on the date of retirement and that includes no interruption from continuous covered employment except allowable interruptions aggregating not over five years shall be considered a "covered employee" within the meaning of this Act.
Allowable interruptions from continuous covered employment shall be interruptions arising from (a) leaves of absence granted to employees for illness, research, travel, training, or study, or for entering the military or naval service of the United States of America in time of war, or upon being called into the Armed Federal Service within two years prior to the 7th day of December, 1941, by operation of Federal Law, or (b) employ went in an office to which the employee had been elected by popular vote at a regular State election, or (c) involuntary severance of employment which shall include a required leave of absence on account of maternity according to the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education or of any other office, agency or department of the State; but the employee shall not be considered in covered employment during any period of such interruption, except as hereinafter provided. The time spent by state employees in the Armed Services of the United States, or in the Auxiliaries of such Service, in time of war or when called into such Federal Service by operation of Federal Law, shall be credited to each such employee as time actually spent in covered employment in this State. No time spent in such service shall be considered any part of the allowable interruptions aggregating not over five (5) years as provided in Chapter 104 of Volume 45, Laws of Delaware.
This Section shall be construed to include those State employees who were regularly employed on a full time or annual basis, but whose compensation prior to the enactment of this legislation may have been computed and paid on an hourly or weekly basis. Proof of length, regularity and continuity of the service of such employees shall be determined by the records of the Department or Agency under which they have served.
Section 2. That Chapter 104 of Volume 45, Laws of Delaware, 1945, be further amended by striking out and repealing the third paragraph of Section 4 thereof and by inserting and enacting a new third paragraph in lieu of the part so stricken out, as follows:
The pension under this Act to employees of the Board of Public Education in Wilmington and the University of Delaware shall be in addition to any pension payable under the present contributory pension plan of the said Board of Public Education or the University of Delaware.
Section 3. That Chapter 104 of Volume 45, Laws of Delaware, 1945, be further amended by adding a new paragraph at the end of Section 6 thereof, as follows:
The State Treasurer shall be the Chief Administrative Officer of this Act. As such, he is hereby empowered and directed to make such rules and regulations as may seem to him necessary and desirable to assist in carrying out its provisions. Such rules and regulations must have the approval of the Attorney General of the State, and shall be publicized in full at least once in each of the Counties of the State. After such approval and publication, such rules and regulations shall have the force and effect of law.
Approved March 27, 1947.