(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) - After more than a decade of advocacy by the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA), Unionized Erie County Correctional Facility Unit Members are celebrating monumental changes to their pensions that will advance efforts to recruit and retain Workers.

Working with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, Erie County Sheriff John Garcia and the Teamsters Union - which also represents Employees at the County Correctional Facility, CSEA recently secured an amendment to the Corrections Pension Plan that lowers the required years of service from 30 to 25 years.

This pivotal change, known as the “25 And Out” Retirement Plan, not only lowers the number of years of service, but makes significant changes to retirement age eligibility.

Before this agreement, Members were required to work until age 64, regardless of the years of service.

Under this plan, Members are now eligible to retire as early as age 46 if they have at least 25 years of service.

The 25 And Out Plan is meant to bolster recruitment and retention efforts within the County Corrections Facilities by both making the career path more appealing to prospective Employees and more attainable for current Jail Management Division Employees.

“I’m happy to say today that this agreement to reduce the requirement for retirement and pension eligibility to twenty-five years of service is a sigh of relief for so many Officers just like me who continue to wake up every single day and rededicate themselves to the well-being and betterment of those incarcerated here in Erie County,” Erie County Correctional Facility CSEA Unit President John DiMartino said.

The hope is that in addition to these recruitment and retention efforts, this legislation will also lower the average age of the Unit’s workforce.

Many of the Unit’s jobs require a high level of mental and physical strength.

After Unit Members overwhelmingly approved the change, DiMartino, CSEA Erie County Local President Denise Szymura, CSEA Western Region President Steve Healy and County Officials participated in a news conference to discuss the pension change.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Report, Go To: ‘25 and out:’ Erie corrections workers secure pension victory (cseany.org)