E35.0 Retirement Transition Program

This policy applies to all regular full-time employees who meet the eligibility requirements of the program.

The Retirement Transition Program is a phased-in approach to full retirement status designed to provide regular full-time employees with a phased transition to retirement.  Only regular full-time employees can participate in the Retirement Transition Program. Acceptance into the program is not automatic or guaranteed; a request may be denied upon the exclusive and sole discretion of RIT management. If approved, the program provides a maximum of three years of transition. Once approved, the employee is required to retire by the end of the Retirement Transition period. Once an employee’s Retirement Transition has become effective, participation in the Retirement Transition Program cannot be revoked by either the employee participating in the program or RIT.

1. Full-time Regular Employees:  Please refer to Policy E01.0 Employee Work Classifications.
    
2. Eligible part-time assignments:  Part-time assignments scheduled for 750 hours or more of work per year. 

1. A regular full-time employee who has met the applicable RIT retirement eligibility criteria for full-time employees;
    
2. If an employee has worked in both regular full-time and eligible regular part-time assignments  during the employee’s RIT career, the employee must have worked in a full-time assignment for three years immediately preceding the start date of Retirement Transition, in addition to meeting the retirement eligibility criteria for full-time employees.

An employee in retirement transition status must work at least the equivalent of half-time for the employee's position during a year. For faculty, this means working a minimum of 50% of the annual normal workload in a fiscal year for the employee's position, as defined by the employee's department head/manager.  For staff, this means working a minimum of 50% of the employee's scheduled annual work hours during each fiscal year while in Retirement Transition.  

During the retirement transition period, the employee is considered to be a full-time employee and will continue to be eligible for the benefits of a full-time employee even though the employee is working a reduced schedule, except as provided for in this policy and the procedures accompanying this policy. The employee’s pay, RIT’s matching contributions and employee contributions to the RIT Retirement Savings Plan, Vacation, Sick/Personal Time and Holiday time, if applicable, are reduced  immediately in proportion to the reduced schedule. The employee's other salary-based benefits (e.g., life insurance and long term disability) shall be reduced in proportion to the reduced schedule as of the January 1 following the effective date of Retirement Transition. The employee’s non-salary based benefits (e.g., medical and dental) shall not be reduced; employee contributions will be at the full-time rate. If applicable, contributions for medical coverage will be adjusted the January 1 following the commencement of Retirement Transition to reflect a different salary level based upon the employee’s reduced salary.

Procedures related to this policy are located on the HR website.

Responsible Office:  Human Resources

Effective Date:  Personnel Policy 3.14 issued June 1, 1984

Policy History:
Last revised July 1, 2001
Edited October 2010
Revised March 14, 2013
Revised September 2019

Reviewed and affirmed September 4, 2024