By The Star Staff
After more than two years, the Puerto Rico government and the Financial Oversight and Management Board have agreed on an early retirement program for public workers that will allow more than 1,000 to retire at the end of March.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia and Omar Marrero Díaz, executive director of the Puerto Rico Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority, announced Tuesday that a final stipulation for the partial implementation of Act 80-2020, “the Incentivized Retirement Program and Justice for Our Public Servants Act,” has been tempered to the requirements of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act, commonly known as PROMESA.
Act 80 was declared void in May 2022 by the U.S. District Court. However, the government and the oversight board agreed to implement the program partially.
“Today we can announce that the Incentive Retirement Program is a reality and that eligible non-essential employees [under] laws 1 of 1990 and 447 of 1951 will be able to retire with a lifetime pension of 50 percent while achieving significant savings for the government,” the governor said. “Once again we fulfill our commitment so that our public servants have a dignified retirement.”
Marrero Díaz added that “this agreement was reached after more than two years of arduous negotiations with the Oversight Board following an exhaustive and detailed evaluation process to enable the retirement of each of the 1,130 public servants who will finally participate in the incentivized retirement.”
The agreement also enables contributions of some $103 million to the Pension Reserve Trust, from the savings achieved through the partial implementation of Law 80-2020, Marrero Díaz said.
The 1,130 public employees, whose jobs were classified as non-essential by their employers, will be able to retire with 50 percent of their highest annual remuneration in the past three years at the time of joining. In addition to their lifetime pension, they will receive a $100 monthly contribution to the medical plan until they turn 62, plus payment of their accumulated vacations. The effective date of departure of the impacted employees will be March 31 of this year.