PERS Retirees Go To Court
Jan 25, 2006
On January 17, 2006, we filed a class action complaint in Multnomah County Circuit Court on behalf of Tier One PERS members who retired between April 1, 2000 and April 1, 2004.
Members in this group are commonly referred to as the "window retirees."
Our class action complaint alleges that the withholding of COLAs for the years 2003 to 2006 from Tier One PERS members is a breach of their PERS contract, as well as a violation of the Oregon wage and hour laws.
Our case is based upon the Oregon Supreme Court decision last year in Strunk v. PERB, 338 Or 145, 108 P3d 1058 (2005).
Our complaint also alleges that the PERS Board's intent to pursue collection actions against "window retirees" for alleged overpayment of 1999 earnings is also a breach of their PERS contract.
This action is without probable cause and would cause irreparable harm to PERS participants who made decisions based upon the promises made to them at the time they retired.
We expect that this case can be resolved by summary judgment. We are asking the trial judge to immediately halt the process and prevent PERS from attempting to collect "overpayments" from retirees.
Two SEIU Local 503, OPEU retirees – John Hawkins and Leslie Hunter – are named in the lawsuit.