Retirement – Leave of absence – Credit
Where a teacher took an unpaid leave of absence to complete her doctorate, the teacher is not entitled to purchase credit for her two years of unpaid leave, as she received no regular compensation for...
View ArticleLabor – Fair representation
Where a defendant union has moved for summary judgment on a count alleging breach of the duty of fair representation, that motion should be allowed because the union appropriately advocated for the...
View ArticleEmployment – Retaliation
Where a plaintiff, a school adjustment counselor at Falmouth High School, has alleged that the defendants discriminated and retaliated against her because of her disabilities and her advocacy for...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability – Causation
Where the Boston Retirement System denied a petitioner’s application to retire for accidental disability, that decision should be reversed because a regional medical panel found a causal link between...
View ArticleRetirement – Group 2 – Mental illness
Where the petitioner, a nursing assistant, has filed an appeal challenging a decision of the State Board of Retirement declining to classify a portion of her work history in Group 2 under G.L.c. 32,...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability – Causation
Where the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System denied a petitioner’s application to retire for accidental disability, that decision must be reversed because a preponderance of the evidence...
View ArticleRetirement – Disability
Where the State Board of Retirement denied a petitioner’s application to retire for ordinary disability, that decision should be upheld because of a lack of a certificate from a licensed medical doctor...
View ArticleRetirement – Group 2
Where a petitioner who was a case manager and the infection preventionist for Lemuel Shattuck Hospital has filed an appeal challenging a decision by the State Board of Retirement denying her request...
View ArticleRetirement – Traffic duty pay – ‘Regular compensation’
Where two Brockton public school employees received traffic duty pay, that pay does not qualify as “regular compensation” for purposes of calculating their retirement allowances.
View ArticleRetirement – Teacher – Retirement Plus
Where a petitioner has filed an appeal from a decision excluding him from the benefits program known as Retirement Plus, there is no merit to the petitioner’s assertion that he was “hired on or after...
View ArticleEmployment – Vaccination – Religious discrimination
Where the plaintiff, a registered nurse, was terminated for non-compliance with the defendant employer’s COVID-19 vaccination policy, the plaintiff has sufficiently alleged a claim of religious...
View ArticleEmployment – COVID-19 protocol – Pretext
Where a plaintiff has alleged disability discrimination, the defendant employer’s motion for summary judgment should be allowed because the plaintiff has not shown that the employer’s stated reason for...
View ArticleRetirement – Credit – Contract service
Where a petitioner has filed an appeal challenging the State Board of Retirement’s calculation of two periods of contract service under G.L.c. 32, §4(1)(s), the board has correctly given the petitioner...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability
Where a petitioner who retired for accidental disability has challenged the calculation of his retirement allowance, the petitioner’s last day of work counts as the date the disabling hazard occurred.
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability – Gear retrieval
Where a firefighter assigned to clear a fire station’s driveway and sidewalk of snow and ice slipped while walking to his truck to get insulated gloves to spread sand and salt on the ice-covered...
View ArticleRetirement – Prior service – Teacher
Where the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System denied a petitioner’s two applications to buy back service at two non-public schools, that decision should be upheld because (1) the first school had...
View ArticleRetirement – Purchase of service
Where a petitioner was erroneously excluded from membership with the Cambridge Retirement System, he may purchase his 2002-2018 service from the Middlesex County Retirement System by paying the...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability – Heart Law presumption
Where the Attleboro Retirement Board denied a firefighter’s application for accidental disability retirement, the matter must be remanded to the board to convene a new medical panel to consider whether...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability
Where (1) the petitioner, a paraprofessional, suffered a concussion in 2014 while walking toward her school to begin her workday, (2) she had two other falls while working in 2015 and 2019, and (3) the...
View ArticleRetirement – Accidental disability – Causation
Where the Dukes County Retirement System denied a petitioner’s application to retire for accidental disability, that decision should be reversed because the medical opinions in the petitioner’s favor...
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