The total amount of the actuarial cost of the pensions provided in this chapter, in the cases of employees who have completed the years of service needed to qualify under any of the options provided in § 7001 of this title, shall be paid by the municipality of San Juan to the Employees’ Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and its Instrumentalities. Said actuarial cost shall consist of the difference between the present value of the accelerated pension provided by this chapter and the present value of a pension for years of service under the provisions of §§ 761 et seq. of this title. The municipality shall also provide that every employee who meet[s] the requirements established in § 7001 of this title and as a result of his/her classification or status, or the program from which [they] earned their salaries, have not completed the total term required, may enjoy the same opportunities for early retirement. To those ends, the municipality shall defray the cost of the completed services of the employees who qualify, through monthly payments to the retirement system prorated for the term that is needed to comply with the requirements for a merit pension provided in §§ 761 et seq. of this title, or for a term of sixty (60) months, whichever is the shorter of the two terms, as of January 1, 2000.
In this case, the municipality of San Juan shall pay to the retirement system annually, the money in cash that is equivalent to the annual payment that the participant shall receive as a pension for a period equivalent to the time that each employee needs in order to claim the benefits of §§ 761 et seq. of this title, up to a maximum of five (5) years, beginning on January 1, 2000. The municipality of San Juan shall also pay the following to the retirement system:
(1) The employer’s and individual contribution of the participants in the Program based on the salary that they earned at the moment of their separation from service.
(2) The contribution to the health plan that is in effect for the pensioners, under the Retirement System.
(3) The Christmas Bonus to which pensioners have a right, under the Retirement System.
It is further provided that the payments to the Retirement System shall be made in advance at the beginning of each fiscal year, except for the first payment, which shall be made in the month of January of 2000. This first payment shall cover the costs that correspond to the period from January to July of 2000.
History —Dec. 31, 1998, No. 342, § 4; Dec. 31, 1999, No. 370, § 2.