Job Classifications

PERS recognizes eight job classification types.

Classification types and descriptions

Job class

Description

General Service

All employee members are General Service unless specified as another classification.

Police and Fire

Police:1

•    Director and employees of the Department of Corrections;

•    persons classified as police officers on July 27, 1989, who continue in the same position;

•    persons who have been classified as police officers for seven consecutive years and are transferred to other positions identified by the director of Corrections as police officers;

•    corrections officer who has supervisory or management authority over other corrections officers;

•    adult parole and probation officers, including those transferred from the Department of Corrections to county employment under the Community Corrections Act;

•    Oregon State Police officers;

•    sheriffs and deputy sheriffs;

•    city police chiefs and police officers;

•    Oregon Liquor Control Commission officers;

•    state capitol and state building police;

•    Port of Portland airport police;

•    commissioned university police;

•    Department of Agriculture livestock police;

•    employees of the Board on Police Standards and Training who are not clerical or secretarial personnel;

•    Department of Justice investigators in the Criminal Justice Division;

•    full-time jailers; and

•    Oregon State Lottery Commission enforcement agents.

•    Employees at youth correction facilities and juvenile detention facilities who:

  1. hold valid Oregon teaching certificates and have supervisory, control, or teaching responsibilities over juveniles committed to the custody of  the Department of Corrections or the Department of Services to Children and Families; or
  2. whose primary job descriptions involve custody, control, treatment, investigation, or supervision of juveniles placed in schools.

•    Juvenile probation officers working for the Department of Services to Children and Families.

Firefighter:2

•    State fire marshal;

•    deputy state fire marshal;

•    Fire Standards and Accreditation Board employees classified other than secretarial or clerical; and

•    persons employed by cities, counties, or districts whose duties involve firefighting.

TIAA/CREF

Oregon State System of Higher Education employees who hold academic rank (ORS 243.910) and participate in the Teachers Insurance Annuity Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equity Fund (CREF) program.

Judge Member

Judges who serve in the Oregon judicial system:

•    Supreme Court,

•    court of appeals,

•    tax court,

•    circuit court, and

•    district court.

Legislator

Legislators elected by the people to the Oregon State Senate or House of Representatives.

Teachers Retirement Fund Association (TRFA)3

Portland Public Schools employees who were members of the Teacher's Retirement Financial Association integrated into PERS.

Elected Official

•    Elected officials,

•    officials appointed to an office with a fixed term,

•    governor-appointed agency directors, and

•    PERS members involuntarily transferred to a public employer not participating in PERS.

School Employee

•    Employees of a common school district, a union high school district, an education service district, or charter school;

•    employees of the State Board of Higher Education or the Oregon Health and Science University who are engaged in teaching or other school activity at an institution of higher education;

•    employees of the Department of Human Services, the Oregon Youth Authority, the Department of Corrections, or the State Board of Education who are engaged in teaching or other school activity at an institution supervised by the authority, board, or department; and

•    employees of a community college district who are engaged in teaching or other school activity.

1.

The Police Officer classification does not include volunteer or reserve police officers, civil deputies, or clerical personnel.

2.

Oregon statute defines a volunteer firefighter as "a firefighter whose position normally requires less than 600 hours of service per year." Volunteer firefighters were not eligible for membership unless the employer decided to extend PERS membership to all volunteer firefighters. If a public employer extended PERS coverage to volunteer firefighters, such firefighters would be General Service class members.

3.

Service time counts toward service credit.