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Committee advances bill to count higher workers’ compensation pay in municipal pension calculations
Summary
The Labor and Public Employees Committee moved House Bill 5609 to the floor, a measure that would require municipalities to include certain workers’ compensation disability benefits in pension final-average-salary calculations when those benefits exceed the wages otherwise used in the pension calculation.
The Labor and Public Employees Committee moved House Bill 5609 to the floor after debate over whether the legislature should require municipalities to include workers’ compensation benefits in pension final-average-salary calculations.
The bill (LCO 6592) would require municipalities to count an employee’s workers’ compensation temporary total or temporary partial disability benefits as wages for pension calculations if those benefits exceed the wages otherwise used to compute an employee’s final average salary. The provision would apply regardless of other statute or special act and would not impair collective bargaining agreements in effect before July 1, 2025, according to committee staff description of the S language.
Opponents said the measure would impose a state mandate on municipalities and would interfere with collective bargaining. Representative Weir said the bill “takes that ability to negotiate away” from local elected officials and town managers, and warned the change could increase municipal costs and ultimately property taxes. Senator Sampson and Representative Canino objected for similar reasons, saying the state should not effectively legislate collective-bargaining outcomes and that the proposal could become an unfunded municipal mandate.
Supporters said the bill addresses a particular hardship: when a long-serving worker is injured near the end of employment and workers’ compensation periods reduce years counted toward a pension, the employee can see a sharp drop in pension benefit. The committee chair described an example heard in testimony of firefighters who had years counted as zero because they were on workers’ compensation during the measurement period and said this “should never have happened.”
Action: The committee moved that House Bill 5609 (LCO 6592) be JFS to the floor. The motion was made and seconded; clerks said votes on several agenda items would be held open after the meeting and that tallies for some items remained open at the hearing.
Supporters argued the change protects workers who are injured on the job and prevents unintended pension reductions; opponents argued the proposal intrudes on local collective bargaining and imposes potential unfunded municipal costs.
The committee recorded the motion and debated the policy merits; final vote tallies for this item were held open at the meeting.
