Pension error comes to light

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BEACON FALLS — The town is working to correct an error that has resulted in at least half a dozen retired town employees not receiving the correct pensions.

When the town’s three unions were created 10 years ago, the provision in the agreements regarding the pension program required employees to work for a full year prior to being enrolled.

In the mid-2000s, the town transitioned to the Connecticut Municipal Employees Retirement System and adhered to its original union agreements requiring the year-long probation.

But the state contacted the town in 2013 and notified officials that the town had been incorrectly applying the waiting period to its workers; employees hired under the state program are supposed to be enrolled from date of hire.

First Selectman Christopher Bielik said the discrepancy recently came to light when an employee preparing for retirement looked into his records and noticed when the town was pulling out its cost share.

While there is a provision under the state program that allows a municipality a 90-day probationary period, the state said Beacon Falls had never applied to do so. Bielik said the town was told about the exemption at the time of the switch, but was not notified that it hadn’t applied.

“It seems to me that it’s a case of mutual misunderstanding of the way that this thing was supposed to be applied because the town and the union negotiated the one-year delay clause in the collective bargaining agreement,” Bielik said. “It was never brought up as a concern in town, and it was never noticed at the state level.”

As of last week, the town had identified at least six affected employees, mostly in public works, who were hired after the switch.

Bielik said the current plan is to retroactively put in the town cost shares for the missing months. He said the town is negotiating with state about applying interest to those missing payments and whether the town will be responsible for interest on both individual and town shares.

“We’ll ultimately come up with the right answer and ultimately everyone will be taken care of so the holes are all filled in,” Bielik said. “Doing the right thing by our employees is our goal here.”