Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 32, Section 91 (b) and (c) earnings and hours restrictions for superannuation public retirees working in the public sector will be waived for calendar year 2022, or a significant portion thereof, pursuant to the signing into law of Chapter 80 of the Acts of 2022 on June 7, 2022.
The waiver starts retroactively as of January 1, 2022, and will remain in place until December 31, 2022, or “up to 90 days” following the end of the declared Public Health Emergency, whichever occurs first. The statute has an emergency preamble and has taken effect immediately.
The Public Health Emergency is different than, but similar to, the State of Emergency which was in place earlier in the pandemic. Like the State of Emergency, it is initiated and terminated by the Governor. It authorizes the Commissioner of Public Health to take certain actions. The Public Health Emergency was declared pursuant to M.G.L.c. 17, Sec. 2A on May 28, 2021, in conjunction with the ending of the State of Emergency on June 15, 2021.
As noted above, if the Public Health Emergency concludes prior to December 31, 2022, the post-retirement earnings waiver will end “up to 90 days” after the Health Emergency has ended. This language means that the waiver could end any time between 1 day and 90 days after the conclusion of the Public Health Emergency. In PERAC’s view, the discretion on determining the “up to 90 days” would be decided by individual employers, consistent with the Governor’s expressed intent.
As with the previous post-retirement earnings waiver, this waiver does not apply to disability retirees.