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Post by chessparent on Feb 27, 2014 20:11:51 GMT -5
Its the end of February. No reports of mass ALJ retirements. Is the collective opinion here that this was a myth? Like NORS by Christmas?
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Post by ssaogc on Feb 27, 2014 20:31:05 GMT -5
Its the end of February. No reports of mass ALJ retirements. Is the collective opinion here that this was a myth? Like NORS by Christmas? Chessparent, this board has a lot of great information but I have noticed that way too many rumors are taken as fact. The retirement Tsunami was one such rumor. It was rumored that there were legions of ALJs who were going to cash out their accrued sick leave time and turn it into pension lotto but that was all bunk. Same thing with the NOR release, folks extrapolated number of weeks from the prior testing which consisted of limited applicants and one less layer of testing and predicted that NORs were coming out before the year ended--here we are one day away from March and still no NORs. |
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Post by JudgeRatty on Feb 27, 2014 22:35:56 GMT -5
My office has seen several retirements as panned so no myth here . I have seen numerous retirement announcements in other offices as well.
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Post by bartleby on Feb 27, 2014 22:52:21 GMT -5
Sratty, same here. Lot of transfers going on also to backfill retirees prior to upcoming hiring. Seems like everything is going pretty smooth so far.
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Post by ssaogc on Feb 28, 2014 7:13:00 GMT -5
Folks that retire usually retire at the end of the year so that they can maximize the leave they carried over while they wait for OPM to process their paperwork and get their first retirement check. I believe chess parent and I were talking about the mass retirements referred to as a tsunami of retirements. That is not happening, the retirements that I am seeing are about the same that I have seen this time in years past. Hiring was also minimal last year and the normal attrition was not replaced due to fiscal times.
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Post by hopefalj on Feb 28, 2014 7:51:01 GMT -5
I saw more retirements than usual. Maybe not a tsunami's worth, but there appears to have been an increase. It also happened with writers, too.
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Post by ssaogc on Feb 28, 2014 8:14:46 GMT -5
What are the ALJ retirement numbers? Those are the ones that we are interested in.
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Post by Gaidin on Feb 28, 2014 9:33:56 GMT -5
As far as I am concerned every ALJ who decides that now is the time to spend more time with their grand kids or go fishing the better. Even a few extra vacancies could be huge for folks trying to get on a cert.
Based on what ssaogc and others said previously I would expect an uptick in retirements but most of those would be people who delayed retirement to get the extra cash not a surge of new retirees.
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Post by redryder on Feb 28, 2014 10:31:17 GMT -5
Dear SSAOGC: Per the info in CPMS (ODAR data tracking system for outsiders), the number for ALJ duty judges has dropped about 65 from the end of the last fiscal year to last month. However, this is a rough estimate because all judges are not counted the same. For example ALJs in management,on union time or out on extended leave do not count as 1 full judge in the equation but may be a fraction or even -0- for the duty count. And some of this loss may be due to the loss of the senior status judges. Most of them were lost to service with the furlough and not called back (or at least that's what I heard from one of their number.)
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Post by alj on Mar 2, 2014 13:35:37 GMT -5
Look for the FERS judges to retire on December 31, 2014 or January 10, 2015, depending on which date is more beneficial to them. Some will go out before then, but the majority will plan for the end of the calendar year or the end of the leave year. Either date will, of course, afford 100% credit for unused sick leave, unless Congress changes the law again.
Basically the question becomes whether to give up 8 hours of annual leave and receive the January annuity, or receive the additional 8 hours of leave and forego the annuity for January, 2015.
The so called "retirement tsunami" is not yet upon us. Although, I don't think it will be a tsunami, but more like high water in low lying areas.
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Post by ssaogc on Mar 2, 2014 20:42:19 GMT -5
Look for the FERS judges to retire on December 31, 2014 or January 10, 2015, depending on which date is more beneficial to them. Some will go out before then, but the majority will plan for the end of the calendar year or the end of the leave year. Either date will, of course, afford 100% credit for unused sick leave, unless Congress changes the law again. ALJ, I do not believe that is the way it works, it is not 100%, only 50% is allowed. See the discussion on the thread below. FERS sick leave is a very small benefit in the scheme of the annuity. Maybe $60 more a month. aljdiscussion.proboards.com/thread/2381/retirement-tsunami-real |
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Post by bartleby on Mar 2, 2014 21:16:21 GMT -5
I believe you are wrong:
"Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, employees
retiring under the Federal
Employees Retirement System
(FERS) will receive full credit for unused
sick leave toward annuity computation.
This is due to a law passed
in 2009 that began the credit in
2010 but phased it in at 50 percent
through the end of 2013 with full
credit beginning in 2014. Essentially,
174 hours of saved sick leave will
convert to one month of additional
service, beginning in 2014."
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Post by alj on Mar 2, 2014 21:19:51 GMT -5
50% was the interim rule; 100% is the current rule. It all changed at the beginning of 2014, as Bart noted above.
But, OGC, you are right about the sick leave being a very small part of the retirement package. Some, however, don't want to leave anything on the table.
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