FFECC early retirement incentive

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To all FT FFECC Members,

The FFECC leadership is pleased to announce that on May 12th, 2016, the Erie County legislature approved 1 million dollars for Erie community college to provide an early retirement incentive for its employees. The FFECC, the College and the County negotiated an MOU for the incentive eligibility, time-lines and payout amounts for eligible FFECC members. This MOU was approved by the FFECC Executive council unanimously on June 15th, 2016. The ECC Board of Trustees approved the MOU on June 30th, 2016.

The following details the MOU:

The college shall offer a retirement incentive to full time members of the FFECC who have been employed at ECC for a minimum of twenty (20) years and whose age and years of service combine to equal eighty (80) or more;

The value of the incentive shall be one-half (1/2) of the employee’s 2015-2016 base salary, to a maximum of $40,000. Where an employee’s age plus years of service exceeds eighty (80), his/her incentive shall include an additional payment of $500 for each full year where the age plus service calculation exceeds eighty (80) years provided, however, that such additional payment shall be capped at $5,000;

The total amount available for all college retirees is $1,000,000.

Eligible employees must apply by close of business on September 30, 2016;

Once notification is received from eligible employees an analysis will be performed by the college to determine if there are enough eligible funds to grant all retirement incentive requests. Such review will be completed no later than October 15, 2016;

If there are more applicants than can be funded with $1,000,000, the benefits will be awarded to eligible employees who apply in order of their combined age and years of service, with the highest combined number receiving the benefits until the allocated funds are exhausted;

Additional funds may be made available by the college based on the incentive utilization of other bargaining units which do not reach the financial cap available to such bargaining unit or by action of the Board of Trustees. If additional money is added to the cap referenced herein, notice will be provided to the FFECC President;

Once the analysis referenced above is complete, the College will immediately notify the FFECC president and each FFECC member that applied for the incentive whether the incentive request can be honored;

An employee deemed eligible for the incentive through this process will have until November 10, 2016 to confirm his/her acceptance of the early retirement incentive. At this time the request will be irrevocable absent special circumstances. Participating FFECC members will be required to complete their fall teaching/work schedule and their retirement date will be December 30, 2016;

The early retirement incentive will, at the employee’s option, be placed into the employee’s IRS Section 403b retirement account and/or an eligible Section 457 deferred compensation account or will be paid directly to the employee;

The College and FFECC agree to meet as soon as possible after October 31st to assess the vacancies that will result from the retirement incentive in the context of factors such as enrollment, critical services, accreditation and the like to recommend which positions should be filled;

The College and FFECC will work together to establish a comprehensive educational process so that potential retirees have a full and thorough understanding of the financial impact of the incentive (dates will be forthcoming); and

The provisions of the collective bargaining agreement remain unchanged by this agreement.

If interested in this incentive, please feel free to contact Tracey Cleveland at 851-1844 or clevelandt@ecc.edu regarding your eligibility.

Regards,

Andrew Sako, President FFECC