Pursuant to the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (Gov. Code, § 31450 et seq.) (CERL), a County of Orange (County) employee receives a pension amount based in part on the employee’s “‘[c]ompensation earnable’” (§ 31461, subd. (a).). “‘Compensation earnable’” is defined as “the average compensation . . . for the period under consideration upon the basis of the average number of days ordinarily worked by persons in the same grade or class of positions during the period, and at the same rate of pay.” (Ibid.)
Following a reorganization of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in 2008, those classified in the position of deputy sheriff II were assigned to work patrol while those classified as a deputy sheriff I worked in jail operations. Deputy sheriff II’s Robert Szewczyk and Rodney Morikawa, along with other deputy sheriff II’s who had been working in jail operations at the time of the reorganization, accepted the option to remain working in jail operations. All deputy sheriffs working in jail operations, exclusively, were required to work a so-called “platoon schedule” by which they worked a regular, mandatory schedule of 80.5 hours every two weeks; a half-hour of overtime coded as “6FE” overtime was built into this regular work schedule.
After they retired in 2018, Szewczyk and Morikawa petitioned the trial court for a writ of administrative mandamus and a writ of traditional mandamus compelling the Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) and the OCERS Board of Retirement (the Board) (collectively, the OCERS parties) to include 6FE overtime pay as “‘compensation earnable’” in determining their final compensation and pension benefit. The court granted the petitions and the OCERS parties appealed.
We affirm. For the reasons we explain, 6FE overtime pay constituted compensation earned by persons in Szewczyk and Morikawa’s same grade or class of positions during the relevant time period, and at the same rate of pay, and therefore must be included in their compensation earnable calculation under section 31461, subdivision (a).
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