12. Are all employees required to be members?
When a Department of a municipality elects to participate in CMERS, all regular employees working twenty or more hours a week are required to be members. Conn. Gen. Stat. Sec. 7-425(5) states, in relevant part, that:
“Member” means any regular employee or elective officer receiving pay from a participating municipality…..but shall not include any person who customarily works less than twenty hours a week if such person entered employment after September 30, 1969, … ,any teacher who is eligible for membership in the state teachers retirement system, , or any person holding a position funded in whole or in part by the federal government as part of any public service employment program, on-the-job training program or work experience program, provided persons holding such federally funded positions on July 1, 1978, shall not be excluded from membership but may elect to receive a refund of their accumulated contributions without interest”.
Therefore, the only employees of a participating municipality that are not required to be members of the CMERS are employees customarily working under 20 hours a week, teachers who are eligible for Teachers Retirement, and employees funded by CETA or similar work experience programs.