2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THREE - Executive (§§ 1 — 9311) › Chapter 33 - Retirement of Government Personnel (§§ 761 — 830q) › § 782 - Employees Retirement System—Participation by public enterprises and municipalities

(a) Any public enterprise, as defined in §§ 761 et seq. of this title, may, by a resolution adopted by the Board of Directors or other government authority, in the case of a public enterprise, join the system created by this chapter and provide the annuities and benefits as herein prescribed for its employees who are participants in the system.
(b) A duly certified copy of this resolution shall be filed with the Supervisor. Said Joint Resolution shall contain a list of the officials and employees of the public enterprise who shall become members of the system. Participation in the system on the part of a public enterprise shall be subject to the approval of the Board. The operative date of participation in the system shall be January 1 or July 1, following the date of approval. The employees of the employer shall be subject to the conditions for membership imposed by this chapter and shall be entitled to participate in the annuities and benefits on the same basis as prescribed herein for the other members of the system. Likewise, they shall make the necessary contributions pursuant to the provisions of this chapter.
(c) For the purposes of §§ 766, 766a, 766d-774, 780, 781, 783-785, and 786 of this title, the Administrator, pursuant to the procedure established in § 781 of this title, shall determine the rates of contributions or equivalent amounts which the public enterprises and municipalities shall contribute as employers. For the purposes of §§ 766, 766a, 766d-774, 780, 781, 783-785, and 786 of this title, the Administrator may fix an employer contribution rate for a corporation that is lower than the maximum required to cover the total cost of its obligations as an employer, but if said rate were greater than 9.275 percent, the minimum rate to be paid shall be 9.275 percent.
(d) Prior to the beginning of each fiscal year the Administrator shall certify the types or equivalent amounts which shall be contributed by public enterprises and municipalities as contributions for the following fiscal year. The Administrator shall notify the enterprise of accumulated actuarial shortages, if any. The Administrator is authorized to require public enterprises or municipalities to make additional payments to eliminate said shortages, and the Administrator may exercise his discretion to establish the manner in which payment is to be made.
(e) If, within six (6) months after the notice of said shortage was provided by the Administrator to said public enterprise or municipality these entities have not made satisfactory arrangements for elimination of the shortage, the Administrator shall, in the manner described in this section, suspend said enterprise or municipality from the system.
(f) The contributions shall be made concurrently with the payment of compensation to employees who are participants in the system, as provided in §§ 761 et seq. of this title, and shall be due and payable within fifteen (15) days after the end of the period to which such compensation relates, and failure of a public enterprise or municipality to make such payment in full within ninety (90) days after the end of such fifteen (15) day period shall suspend such public enterprise or municipality from the system. The Administrator shall immediately give notice of such suspension to the public enterprise or municipality and thereafter the rights of such enterprise or municipality in the system and those of its employees who are participants of the system shall be the same as though the public enterprise or municipality had effectively withdrawn from the system in the manner hereinafter described in this section.
(g) The Administrator shall keep a separate account for each public enterprise and municipality and individual accounts for each of the employees thereof participants of the system, in the same manner as for other members of the system. For the purposes of §§ 761 et seq. of this title, payments made by a public enterprise or municipality and contributions by the employees thereof shall be credited, and all appropriate benefits charged to said accounts.
(h) Any public enterprise or municipality becoming delinquent in contributions as hereinabove provided shall be considered as having withdrawn from the system, and the effective date of such withdrawal shall be fixed by the Administrator. In such an event the procedure shall be as follows:
(1) Assets of the system accumulated from contributions of employers and employees of public enterprises or municipalities shall be applied, insofar as possible, to the payment of the following obligations in the order in which they appear:
(A) Present value of all pensions granted to employees of the corporation or municipality, based on actuarial tables adopted by the Board. These amounts shall be retained in the system to continue payment of said pensions.
(B) Present value of all benefits as to which the participants of said public enterprise or municipality have acquired a vested interest as provided in §§ 761-788 of this title. These amounts shall be retained in the system to continue payment of said benefits.
(C) Return of contributions and interest to all employees who have not acquired vested rights to benefits.
(D) Return of employer contributions with interest.
(2) The employer shall be responsible to pay the system for any shortage resulting from pensions or vested rights to benefits owing to participants and which cannot be made from the accumulated resources of the system.
(3) If available resources, after payment of the obligations listed in paragraphs (A) and (B) of clause (1) of this subsection are insufficient to meet the obligations mentioned in paragraph (C) in total, available resources for such payments shall be distributed among the persons who make up the category established in said paragraph (C) in the proportion that the amount accredited to each person has to the sum total of accredited quantities.
(4) Employees of the public enterprise or municipality who are not receiving a pension or who do not have vested rights and who do not receive from the system complete reimbursement for their contributions plus interest shall have the right to proceed against the public enterprise or municipality for the return of any portion of their accumulated contributions for which they have not been reimbursed.
(i) Once the system has liquidated all assets accumulated by a public enterprise or municipality which has withdrawn from the system as provided herein, said public enterprise or municipality and its employees shall have no right to make any claim whatsoever against the system.
(j) Any remainder which reverts to the public enterprise or municipality after provision is made for retirees and employees with vested rights and after reimbursement to employees without vested rights shall be considered a trust fund subject to equitable distribution among employees who were participants in the system as of the date of withdrawal of the enterprise or municipality from the system.
(k) Any public enterprise or municipality which, along with its employees, has been suspended from the system may be readmitted at any time with the approval of the Board and upon payment to the system of the amount reimbursed upon suspension, as adjusted for former employees who have not been replaced, together with appropriate amounts for contributions of the enterprise or municipality and its employees for the period of withdrawal from the system, all to include interest as determined by the Administrator.
(l) In the event a public enterprise shall be created within thirty (30) days prior to July 1, 1951, or at any time subsequent to the said effective date, and all or any part of the employees of any such public enterprise shall be members of a superseded pension fund or plan as herein defined, or of the system, the said public enterprise shall automatically come under the provisions of §§ 761 et seq. of this title and be subject to all of the conditions and obligations of §§ 761 et seq. of this title. The provisions for optional participation contained in this section shall not apply to any such public enterprise, but all other provisions shall be fully applicable to the same extent as in the case of any other public enterprise covered by §§ 761 et seq. of this title.
—May 15, 1951, No. 447, p. 1298, added as § 22 on Feb. 16, 1990, No. 1, § 17; Feb. 13, 1996, No. 3; renumbered as § 1-110 and amended on Sept. 24, 1999, No. 305, § 9.
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