Pension Support Plan
Information on The Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights
Act (USERRA) which provides important benefits,
including pensions, for all Reserve and National
Guard members who are called to active duty.
Read
More....
Overextended Military
Reserves,
April 6, 2003,
New York Times
“The pacification
and rebuilding of Iraq could eventually require
tens of thousands of part-time, civilian soldiers
in the National Guard and the various military
reserves. The system has benefits, both in cost
efficiency and in preserving a sense of civilian
participation at times of national crisis. But
the more the military relies on the reserves
for extended periods of service, the more problems
mount......”
Read More....
Special
Mobilization Support Plan
25
April 2003
My Dear Brother and Sister Bishops:
I commend
the below important document developed by Bishop
George Packard as we consider how to support
our priests serving as National Guard or Reserve
chaplains who have been mobilized during the
war in Iraq and for other extended periods of
time. Each congregation and diocese will have
to determine what that support might be.
The attached
material refers to: (1) What the federal law
requires for ongoing pension support and re-employment
for a mobilized member of the military. (2)
What we might do voluntarily as the church to
bring a pastoral response to clergy-chaplains
and their families whose service has recently
begun. Chancellor David Booth Beers has advised
Bishop Packard that there may be an elective
aspect to any of these provisions because of
the separation of church and state.
A careful
study in a cooperative effort by my office and
the Church Pension Fund has prepared the enclosed.
The dedicated work of the Church Pension Fund
should be noted.
As I urged
at our House of Bishops meeting at Kanuga in
March, please support and uphold those who serve
as chaplains to our men and women in the military.
We continue our prayers for their work.
May the
Risen Christ bring light and clarity to all
that is done in His Name.
Yours ever in Christ,
Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
Special
Mobilization Support Plan
The Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights
Act (USERRA) provides important benefits for
all Reserve and National Guard members who are
called to active duty. This act requires employers
to maintain pension coverage during the period
of military deployment, as well as to ensure
equivalent employment following release from
federal service.
There
is considerable discussion among faith communities
as to the probable unconstitutionality of this
law as an unwarranted infringement upon freedom
of religion in violation of the First Amendment.
Ultimately, however, each church employer (e.g.,
congregation, diocese) must decide whether to
comply with the law as written by Congress or
risk litigation with the Department of Labor
over enforcement of the law’s stated requirements.
In sum, while our counsel believes that the
law may well be unconstitutional, there are
strong practical and pastoral reasons for complying
with its terms.
If a congregation
or diocese elects to provide the support contemplated
by the new law, the Office of the Bishop Suffragan
for Chaplaincies and the Church Pension Fund
can offer assistance to meet a major portion
of the law’s requirements under what we
are calling a “Special Mobilization Support
Plan” (the “Support Plan”).
This plan is intended to ensure that pension
assessments for clergy called up for service
will be maintained during the full period of
active duty.
Under the Support
Plan, which we believe that most congregations
and dioceses can afford and will want to embrace,
a memorandum of understanding would be entered
into by the congregation or diocese, as the
case may be, with the Bishop of the Diocese,
the Church Pension Fund, and the Office of the
Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies for the shared
responsibility for maintaining payment of pension
assessments for the member of the clergy who
has been called into service. In most instances,
the memorandum of understanding would provide:
-
That
for the first three months of military leave,
the employing congregation or diocese would
continue to pay to the Church Pension Fund
the ordinary monthly assessments based on
the chaplain’s last full salary;
-
That for
the next 12 months, the Pension Fund would
absorb one-half of the monthly assessments
if the congregation or diocese, the Bishop
of the Diocese, and/or the Office of the Bishop
Suffragan for Chaplaincies agree to share
in some fashion payment of the other half;
and
- That after the first
15 months, the Office of the Bishop Suffragan
for Chaplaincies would pay the monthly assessments
until termination of the chaplain’s service and not longer than eighteen months on any one period of active duty.
Details of this
sharing agreement would be worked out between
the congregation or the diocese, the diocesan
Bishop, and the Office of Bishop Suffragan for
Chaplaincies depending upon the resources of
the chaplain’s employer.
There are other
considerations raised by our clergy’s
military service, some of which are contained
in the new law. First, while the law’s
requirement for reemployment after military
service to the same or equivalent position may
be of questionable validity, a compassionate
consideration of such employment is something
that should have the highest priority with our
Bishops and congregations. Beyond that, when
a chaplain is mobilized, federal salary and
healthcare coverage commence, but they may not
be as generous or appropriate for the chaplain
and his or her family as that provided by the
congregation or diocese. It is therefore urged
that congregations and dioceses consider creative
supplemental arrangements regarding salary and
benefits, including housing, that would honor
the vital importance of this military service.
Chaplains who
would like to participate in the Support Plan,
or need any other assistance, should contact
the Rt. Rev. George E. Packard, Bishop Suffragan
for Chaplaincies, 815 Second Avenue, New York,
NY 10017-4503, 212-716-6202/6065 or gpackard@episcopalchurch.org.
Be sure to have the following information at
hand: Your Social Security number, your Church
employer and the anticipated time you will be
serving on active duty.
Overextended
Military Reserves, April 6, 2003
 |
The pacification and rebuilding
of Iraq could eventually require tens of thousands
of part-time, civilian soldiers in the National
Guard and the various military reserves. Reserves
often serve in time of war. But over the past
decade, they have been repeatedly called up for
missions that often involve long-term postings
abroad. The system has benefits, both in cost
efficiency and in preserving a sense of civilian
participation at times of national crisis. But
the more the military relies on the reserves for
extended periods of service, the more problems
mount.
Many reservists work for police and fire departments,
which suffer from a drain in manpower. Families
and businesses suffer, and some employers may
be tempted to avoid hiring reservists for fear
they will disappear for months or even years at
a time. While overseas, reservists are often denied
the benefits of full-time soldiers. The combination
is devastating, especially because it shows no
sign of abating as the needs of the military grow.
A recent Congressional report
suggests that harried, overused reservists are experiencing
personal and professional problems that could eventually
drive many of them out of the service. This is partly
because the country has faced the challenge of maintaining
its traditional military obligations around the
globe while adding new missions in Bosnia, Kosovo,
Afghanistan and Iraq. These new commitments were
made as the Pentagon was shrinking the military
by moving what were thought to be nonessential forces
into the reserves.
Now military intelligence, for example, cannot staff
its offices without constant help from the reserves.
When planning for the war in Iraq — an arid
nation with a history of using chemical weapons
— the brass found that its water supply battalions
and chemical brigades had to be called up from the
reserves. The same was true of military police,
medical brigades and the civil affairs officers
who will teach the Iraqis how to build and run civic
institutions that include police forces and courts.
The reserves are meanwhile treated less well than
the full-time soldiers for whom they stand in.
A report by Representative John McHugh of New York
complained that reservists who had volunteered for
a second year of service in Europe — and had
moved their families at their own expense —
had to pay tuition to enroll their children at schools
run by the military. On a tour of such bases, Mr.
McHugh's group encountered reservists who had not
been paid for as long as six months because of defects
in the computerized payroll system.
Congress needs to address this growing problem and
rethink the role of the reserves. Some experts believe
they should be redirected to homeland defense rather
than service overseas. As a start, Washington needs
to make sure immediately that active duty reservists
are paid on time and that they enjoy the same benefits
as the regular-service colleagues they support.
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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