A key resource highlighted at Benefits U last month was the Leaves of Absence - Impact on MOSERS Benefits flyer. We hope this document clarifies how various unpaid leaves of absence or leave events impact your employees’ benefits through MOSERS. To ensure accurate records for your employees, submit the Leave of Absence/Back to Work form through the secure Employer Login as soon as your employees have unpaid leave events or return to work from unpaid leave.

Employees approved for domestic or sexual violence leave will receive service and salary credit towards retirement for such leave up to the two-week maximum.

We have added a new leave category for domestic or sexual violence to MOSERS’ Leave of Absence/Back to Work form.

If an employee will not receive pay or is receiving partial or intermittent pay due to an approved domestic or sexual violence leave, please submit a Leave of Absence/Back to Work form via the Employer Login to ensure the employee receives the proper credit towards retirement.

Maintaining accurate service records is vital in the calculation/determination of benefits for MOSERS members. It is very important that you submit termination, transfer, and leave of absence/back to work forms in a timely manner through the MOSERS Employer Portal. We appreciate your continued support in making these processes smooth and efficient for you and your employees.

Terminations

• Report the last day the employee was actively employed by your agency, this includes the last day worked or on leave (paid or unpaid).
• If you are a SAMII agency, the termination date entered on the form is typically one day earlier than the termination date used in SAMII.

• If an employee is terminating at the end of a pay period, and the pay period ends on a regularly scheduled day off, please submit the termination date as the last day of the pay period.

• An employee’s date of termination and payroll must agree.
• Example: If an employee’s last day of work is on January 31, they should receive payroll for the full month of January.

• If there is a date difference between the last day worked (or on paid leave) and the date of termination, submit a Leave of Absence form for the period between the last time worked or when the leave was exhausted to the date of termination.
• Example: Termination date 3/14/2021 — no payrolls received for March 31 payroll
• Submit a leave form effective 3/1/2021 to term date of 3/14/2021.

• If an employee is retiring directly from active employment, use the last day of the month in which they were actively employed by your agency as the termination date.
• Example: Retirement date is 4/1/2021 = Termination date of 3/31/2021
• Please submit the employee’s termination form no later than the first week of the month in which he/she is retiring.

• Be cautious about submitting a termination form too early (i.e., two months or earlier). Once the form has been submitted online, it automatically updates the employee’s records in our system and shows them as terminated. The employee then may no longer be able to generate benefit estimates using myMOSERS.

Transfers

• If the employee has not missed 30 calendar days of payroll and is transferring employment from one state agency to another (in a MOSERS-covered benefit-eligible position):
• The hiring agency must complete the Transfer of Employment form.
• The previous employer must complete the Termination of Employment form. 
• Exceptions for completing a transfer form:
• Employees returning to state employment who have missed 30 calendar days of payroll.
• Employees transferring from the Department of Conservation, Highway Patrol, Department of Transportations, or a state college/university (except State Technical College of Missouri and Lincoln University), which are not covered by MOSERS' life insurance plan.
• If either exception exists, the hiring agency should enroll the employee in SEBES rather than submitting a transfer form.  

Leave of Absence

• MOSERS requires the agency to report a leave of absence using the first full day the employee is in an unpaid status as the effective date of leave.
• Report to MOSERS when the employee returns to work.