Calculating Months of Active Service

Relief associations have authority to award service credit for pension purposes based on each completed year of active service that a member has served with the affiliated fire department or, if the relief association’s bylaws authorize it, to prorate service credit on a monthly basis.

If a relief association’s bylaws authorize the monthly proration of service credit, the bylaws may define what constitutes a “month.” The bylaw definition must require a calendar month to have at least 16 days of active service. If the bylaws allow service credit to be prorated on a monthly basis but do not define a “month,” a “month” must be a completed month of active service measured from the member’s date of entry to the same date in the subsequent calendar month.

The OSA’s Sample Bylaw Guides include sample language that a relief association may use as a reference if the relief association elects to prorate service credit monthly or to define a “month” of service credit in its bylaws. The Sample Bylaw Guides are provided in both MS Word and Adobe PDF formats.

A Statement of Position is available on the OSA’s website that provides additional information about firefighter service credit determinations. 

Published last in the June 2020 Pension Newsletter