California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013: exceptions: supplemental defined benefit plans.

Assembly Member Stefani's pension reform legislation would permit public employers to negotiate supplemental retirement benefit contributions through collective bargaining, while maintaining existing restrictions on new defined benefit plans established under the California Public Employees' Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA).

The measure preserves PEPRA's core limitations, which prohibit public employers from offering supplemental defined benefit plans if they did not provide them before January 1, 2013, or from extending existing plans to additional employee groups after that date. Within these constraints, the bill authorizes public employers to bargain over contributions for supplemental retirement benefits when administered by or on behalf of an exclusive bargaining representative for one or more employee units.

The proposed changes create a framework for public employers and unions to negotiate supplemental retirement benefit contributions through established collective bargaining processes, while retaining safeguards that prevent the creation or expansion of defined benefit plans beyond their pre-2013 scope. This maintains PEPRA's original restrictions on supplemental retirement benefits while introducing a specific avenue for contribution negotiations through employee representatives.