2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 33 - Retirement of Government Personnel (§§ 761 — 830q) › § 763 - Employees Retirement System—Definitions

The following terms and phrases as used in §§ 761–788 of this title, unless a different meaning is plainly required by the context, shall have the following meanings:
(1) Board.— Shall mean the Board of Trustees of the Retirement System for Employees of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(2) Administrator.— Shall mean the Administrator of the Retirement System created by §§ 761 et seq. of this title.
(3) Government of Puerto Rico or Government.— Shall mean the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, its departments, divisions, bureaus, offices, agencies and dependencies.
(4) Public enterprise.— Shall mean any government instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico heretofore or hereafter created. It shall, however, not include those subsidiary enterprises of government instrumentalities whose employees, in the judgment of the Board of Trustees of the Retirement System, do not have a clear relationship of employee and employer with regard to the Government of Puerto Rico. Any officer or employee who is a participant of the System and becomes or has become an officer or employee of a subsidiary enterprise of any public enterprise without interruption in service shall continue to have the same rights and privileges as participant of the System, even if said subsidiary enterprise is not covered by the System, it being understood that the necessary employer contribution shall be made by the subsidiary enterprise in accordance with the provisions of §§ 761 et seq. of this title.
(5) Municipality.— Shall include the Municipality of San Juan.
(6) Municipal Legislature.— Shall include the Municipal Legislature of San Juan.
(7) Employer.— Shall mean the Government of Puerto Rico, or any public enterprise, or any municipality, as herein defined.
(8) Employee.— Shall mean any officer or employee of the Government of Puerto Rico, or its instrumentalities or municipalities, regularly employed on a full time basis. This shall include:
(a) Any member of the Police of Puerto Rico;
(b) any Justice of the Peace of Puerto Rico;
(c) the elective officers of the People of Puerto Rico and the employees of the Legislature;
(d) officers and employees of public enterprises;
(e) officers and employees of the municipalities, and
(f) irregular personnel employed in accordance with the provisions of §§ 711—711g of this title.
(9) Member or participant.— Shall mean any employee covered by or belonging to the membership of the system.
(10) Prior services.— Shall mean any service that, prior to the effective date of the System, a participant has rendered as an employee, and for which he/she shall receive the corresponding credit pursuant to § 765 of this title. It shall also mean every creditable service under § 765(e) of this title rendered by a participant at any time, regardless of the date of his/her enrollment in the System.
(11) Subsequent services.— Shall mean every service from said effective date of the System rendered as an employee, as provided in § 765 of this title.
(12) Creditable service.— Shall consist of membership service and prior service.
(13) Compensation.— Shall mean the gross and cash remuneration earned by an employee.
In computing the compensation, any bonuses in addition to the salary and overtime pay shall be excluded.
(14) Average compensation.— Shall mean the highest average annual rate of compensation of a member of the system during any three (3) years of creditable service.
(15) Beneficiary.— Shall mean any person in receipt of any annuity or benefit provided by §§ 761 et seq. of this title.
(16) Accumulated contributions.— Shall mean the sum of all contributions made by a member together with regular interest additions thereto.
(17) Regular interest.— Shall mean the interest rate prescribed by the Board. Interest shall be compounded annually. Regular interest shall be credited annually to the participants’ accounts and computed on the balance reflected by such accounts at the beginning of the fiscal year. Interest shall be credited at the end of each quarter. Interest shall be credited to the contributions made by the participants during the current fiscal year for the average time they have been in the system in that fiscal year. In no case shall interest be credited to contributions which have been in the system for less than three (3) months during any given fiscal year.
(18) Actuarial tables.— Shall mean such indices of mortality and rates of interest as shall be adopted by the Administrator in accordance with recommendations of the actuary.
(19) Actuarial equivalent.— Means an annuity or benefit of equivalent value to the accumulated contributions, when such annuity or benefit, as the case may be, is computed upon the basis of the funding methods herein prescribed and actuarial tables in current use by the system.
(20) Fiscal year.— Shall mean the period beginning on July 1 of any year and ending on June 30 of the next succeeding year.
(21) Social security.— Shall mean Title II of the Federal Social Security Act, approved August 14, 1935, Chapter 531, 49 Stat. 620, officially known as the “Social Security Act” as heretofore or hereafter amended, including the regulations and requirements approved thereunder.
(22) Date of coordination with social security.— Shall mean January 1, 1955, or any later date fixed for the inclusion of the participants under the Federal Social Security Act.
(23) Superseded pension funds.— Shall mean any pension fund or plan constituted or in operation as provided in the various acts listed in Prior law note under § 762 of this title.
(24) Program.— Shall mean the Retirement Savings Account Program established under the System pursuant to the provisions of §§ 786-1 through 786-12 of this title.
(25) Hybrid Program.— Shall mean the Defined Contribution Hybrid Program established in §§ 787a–787o of this title, under which participants make contributions that will later be used to pay a life annuity.
(26) Initial transfer balance.— Shall mean the individual contributions plus the accrued interest of the participant of the Program under the System or any other retirement system of the employer that are transferred to the Program.
(27) Joint and Survivorship Annuity Contract (50%).— Shall mean a non-cancelable annuity contract issued by an insurance company authorized by the Insurance Commissioner of Puerto Rico to conduct business in Puerto Rico, under which the insurance company shall make equal monthly payments during the life of the participant of the Program, and after his/her death, when the surviving spouse reaches the age of sixty (60) and until his/her death, the insurance company shall pay an amount each month equal to fifty percent (50%) of the monthly payment that the participant received when living.
(28) Life annuity contract.— Shall mean a non-cancelable annuity contract that is issued by an insurance company authorized by the Insurance Commissioner of Puerto Rico to conduct business in Puerto Rico, under which the insurance company shall make equal monthly payments during the life of the participant of the Program.
(29) Surviving spouse.— Shall mean the person who is [legally] married to the participant of the Program when the separation from service occurs and who survives the participant.
(30) Savings account.— Shall mean the retirement saving account established and maintained under § 786-3 of this title for each participant of the Program.
(31) Normal retirement date.— Shall mean under §§ 786-1 through 786-12 of this title:
(a) General rule.— The first day of the month that falls on the same date or a subsequent date on which the Program participant reaches the age of sixty (60), except as otherwise provided in clause (b) of this subsection.
(b) Public employees in high-risk positions.— In the case of public employees in high-risk positions, it shall mean the first day of the month that falls on the same date or a subsequent date on which the Program participant reaches the age of fifty-five (55).
(c) Effectiveness of these provisions.— The normal retirement date established in clauses (a) and (b) of this definition shall be in effect until June 30, 2013.
(32) New retirement age.— Shall mean the retirement age of participants as provided in §§ 787a–787o of this title.
(33) Transfer option.— Shall mean the choice to participate in the Program pursuant to § 786-2 of this title by each participant of the System who is an employee as of December 31, 1999, or by each employee who is a member of an employer’s retirement system as of December 31, 1999, and who subsequent to this date becomes a participant of the System.
(34) Program participant.— Shall mean, until June 30, 2013, any person for whom the Administrator maintains an account under the Retirement Savings Account Program pursuant to the provisions of §§ 786–1—786–12 of this title. Beginning on July 1, 2013, this term shall mean any person for whom the Administrator maintains an account under the Defined Contribution Hybrid Program in accordance with the provisions of §§ 787a–787o of this title.
(35) Investment yield.— Shall mean the investment yield that shall be credited to the savings account of the participant of the Program pursuant to § 786-7(a)(3) of this title.
(36) System.— Shall mean the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(37) Totally and permanently disabled.— Shall mean, for the purposes of §§ 786-1 to 786-12 of this title, being totally and permanently disabled as determined by the Federal Social Security Administration. In the case of those employees who are not covered by the Federal Social Security Act and for purposes of §§ 766, 766a, 766d, 766e, 767, 768, 768a, 769a, 770, 770a, 771a, 774, 780, 781, 783, 784, 785 and 786 of this title, the Administrator, or the person designated by him/her, shall determine whether the person is disabled, pursuant to the rules established through regulations.
(38) Permanent separation from service.— Shall mean a complete and definite separation from public service. Resignation used as a temporary mechanism to move from one position to another position in public service is not sufficient.
(39) Code.— Shall mean the Internal Revenue Code for a New Puerto Rico, §§ 30011 et seq. of Title 13.
(40) Public employees in high-risk positions.— Shall mean the Puerto Rico Police Department, the Municipal Police Corps, the Puerto Rico Firefighters Corps, the Municipal Firefighters Corps, and the Custody Officers Corps.
(41) Retirement age for participants who enter public service after June 30, 2013.— Retirement age shall be sixty-seven (67) years, except for public employees in high-risk positions, whose retirement age shall be fifty-eight (58) years.
(42) Additional Uniform Contribution.— Shall mean (a) for purposes of fiscal year 2013-2014, one hundred forty million dollars ($140,000,000), and (b) for purposes of every fiscal year, beginning on fiscal year 2014-2015 and ending on fiscal year 2032-2033, the uniform contribution certified by an external actuary of the System within at least one hundred twenty (120) days prior to the beginning of said fiscal year, as necessary to prevent the value of the projected gross assets of the System from falling below one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000) during any subsequent fiscal year. If, for any reason, the certificate of the Additional Uniform Contribution for any fiscal year is not available within at least one hundred twenty (120) days prior to the beginning of a fiscal year, or within a shorter term as authorized by the Office of Management and Budget, the Additional Uniform Contribution for said fiscal year shall be the Additional Uniform Contribution applicable to the immediately preceding fiscal year.
The masculine gender of the pronoun, wherever it is used, shall encompass both genders.
History —May 15, 1951, No. 447, p. 1298, § 3; Dec. 29, 1951, No. 1, p. 142; May 12, 1953, No. 16, p. 52; Apr. 9, 1954, No. 8, p. 122; June 20, 1956, No. 70, p. 292, § 2; Apr. 22, 1959, No. 2, p. 4; June 28, 1961, No. 132, p. 283, § 1; June 15, 1965, No. 26, p. 52; June 22, 1966, No. 103, p. 326; Mar. 28, 1972, No. 11, p. 24; June 20, 1972, No. 24, p. 421, § 3; Dec. 10, 1975, No. 14, p. 972, § 1; May 21, 1992, No. 10, § 2; renumbered as § 1-104 and amended on Sept. 24, 1999, No. 305, § 6; Sept. 15, 2004, No. 296, § 3; April 4, 2013, No. 3, § 3, eff. July 1, 2013; June 25, 2013, No. 32, § 5.