Thursday, January 28 2016
TO: Campus Community
FR: Marc Fisher, Vice Chancellor, Administrative Services
Cynthia Señeriz, Acting Director, Human Resources
RE: Webinars to Discuss New Retirement Benefits for Future UC Employees
As you know, UC is developing new retirement benefits for future UC employees as a result of last year’s 2015 budget agreement between UC and state leaders. The task force that convened last summer to recommend options for the new retirement benefits has concluded its work and presented President Napolitano with its recommendations. The task force report along with answers to frequently asked questions, a fact sheet, and background on the task force are available on the following website created to serve as a central information resource regarding the new retirement benefits under development. The website address is https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/2016-retirement-benefits/rotf-fact-sheet.pdf
UC will hold two webinars to discuss the recommendations and receive questions and/or comments from interested faculty and staff. The dates of the webinars are as follows.
• Monday, February 1 from 2:30pm to 4:00pm
• Wednesday, February 10 from 1pm to 2:30pm
To join the webinar
Go to https://www.readytalk.com
Enter the participant code: 5854736
More information about the webinars is available at:
http://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2016/01/uc-community-invited-to-discuss-task-force-retirement-benefits-recommendations-for-future-employees.html
In addition, President Napolitano is inviting feedback on the task force recommendations from faculty, staff and others to help inform the proposal she is expected to bring to the UC Board of Regents in March. Members of the UC community may send in comments via the website (http://ucal.us/2016retirement)
Background
Under the 2015 budget agreement between UC and state leaders, Governor Brown and the Legislature will provide UC $436 million over several years to help pay down UC’s unfunded pension liability in exchange for UC implementing a cap on the defined benefit (pension) portion of UC’s retirement benefits, mirroring the cap on pension benefits for state employees under the 2013 California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act (PEPRA). Key priorities for UC in designing a new set of retirement benefits include:
• Ensuring UC’s long-term financial stability that, among other things, maintains the financial stability of the UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) for current and future employees and allows for regular salary/merit increases for faculty and staff;
• Maintaining the competitiveness of overall compensation for UC faculty and staff;
• Facilitating shared responsibility between UC and employees for individual retirement readiness, and providing programs and other support that help employees prepare for retirement.