NEW YORK NURSE: December 2007
by Rolando Tomas Infante
About 25% of participants in the NYSNA Pension Plan will be eligible for a greater pension benefit under a change approved by plan trustees in October.
The change will allow participants to calculate their pensions based on the five highest years of their past 10 years of income, rather than their five best consecutive years of the past 10, which had been the case until now. This is intended to help nurses who are near or at retirement age, who for various reasons left their full-time roles and accepted part-time work.
Many nurses didn’t realize that when they accepted part-time positions, they were reducing their own retirement benefit because of this consecutive-year provision.
Trustee Bernadette Bellantoni, from Staten Island University Hospital-North, said many of her colleagues took part-time work at the end of their careers because of individual or family health concerns. When this part-time work was factored into their pension calculation, there was a decrease in what they actually earned during their careers. Some nurses left to take employment at a non-NYSNA-represented facility.
After nearly two years of study, plan trustees and actuaries determined the $2-billion dollar plan was strong and solvent enough to handle the change. The change will go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2010.
“By creating a flexible option for nurses taking up part-time work,” Bellantoni said, “they can now stay in their own facilities, working with trusted longtime friends and co-workers, without having to worry about any decreases in their pension payments.”
“In today’s environment of reckless corporate budget-cutting, it can be quite an achievement to improve a pension plan. But this is exactly what NYSNA pension trustees did,” said Nancy Kaleda, senior associate director of NYSNA’s Economic & General Welfare program and chair of the pension board of trustees.
“NYSNA RNs are fortunate enough to still have a defined benefit contribution plan,” Kaleda said. “It’s a safe and stable plan that will enable its 12,000 participants to retire with solid pension benefits.