Oregon Revised Statutes Chapter 238 § 238.015 — Membership generally

Membership generally. (1) No person may become a member of the system unless that person is in the service of a public employer and has completed six months’ service uninterrupted by more than 30 consecutive working days during the six months’ period. Every employee of a participating employer shall become a member of the system at the beginning of the first full pay period of the employee following the six months’ period. Contributions for new members shall first be made for those wages that are attributable to services performed by the employee during the first full pay period following the six months’ period, without regard to when those wages are considered earned for other purposes under this chapter. All public employers participating in the Public Employees Retirement System established by chapter 401, Oregon Laws 1945, as amended, at the time of repeal of that chapter, and all school districts of the state, shall participate in, and their employees shall be members of, the system, except as otherwise specifically provided by law. (2) Any active member of the Public Employees Retirement System who, through the annexation of a political subdivision employing the member or by change of employment, becomes the employee of another political subdivision which is participating in the Public Employees Retirement System and has also a separate retirement system for its employees, shall remain an active member of the Public Employees Retirement System unless, within 60 days after the effective date of the annexation or change of employment or April 8, 1953, the member shall by written notice to the Public Employees Retirement Board and to the administrative body of the new public employer elect to relinquish membership in the Public Employees Retirement System and become a member of the separate retirement system of the employer, if eligible for membership in that retirement system, and the member shall be so carried by the new employer. Immediately upon such annexation of any political subdivision or such change of employment, the new public employer shall inform such employee in writing of the right of the employee to exercise an election as in this section provided. (3) A political subdivision (other than a school district) not participating in the retirement system established by chapter 401, Oregon Laws 1945, as amended, which employs one or more employees, each of whose position requires 600 hours of service per year, or an agency created by two or more political subdivisions to provide themselves governmental services, which employs one or more employees, each of whose position requires 600 hours of service per year, may, through its governing body, notify the board in writing, that it elects to include its employees in the system hereby established. Such public employer may request the board to make a study and estimate of the cost of including it and its eligible employees, other than volunteer firefighters, in the system, which the board thereupon shall cause to be made and the cost of which the employer shall bear. Upon completion of the study and estimate the employer may apply for admission to the system, whereupon it shall begin to participate therein and its eligible employees other than volunteer firefighters shall become members of the system. If the employer is an agency created by two or more political subdivisions to provide themselves governmental services and ceases thereafter to transmit to the board contributions for any of its eligible employees, the benefits based upon employer contributions to which such employees would otherwise be entitled shall be reduced accordingly. (4) No adult in custody in a state institution or a noncitizen on a training or educational visa working for any participating employer, even though the adult in custody or noncitizen received compensation from a participating employer, shall be eligible to become a member of the system. No person employed by a participating employer and defined by such employer as a student employee is eligible to become a member of the system for such student employment. (5) A person holding an elective office or an appointive office with a fixed term or an office as head of a department to which the person is appointed by the Governor may become a member of the system by giving the board written notice of desire to do so within 30 days after taking the office or, in the event that the officer is not eligible to become a member of the system at the time of taking the office, within 30 days after becoming so eligible. Membership so established shall not be discontinued during the appointive or elective term of the officer except upon separation of the officer from service. (6) A public employer employing volunteer firefighters may apply to the board at any time for them to become members of the system. Upon receiving the application the board shall fix a wage at which,