WPEA tosses hat in lawsuit ring

• Published May 25, 2007

The Washington Public Employees Association has decided to file its own lawsuit over repeal of gain sharing.

“The lawsuit filed by WPEA argues that the effect of the State’s action is to impair the vested, contractual right to gain sharing payment granted to current members of PERS Plans 1 and 3,” the union said in a press release today.

That’s essentially the same argument made by the Washington Education Association. It hopes to get around language in the bills that created and ended gain sharing that specifically say that it was not a contractual right and if the repeal is overturned, the new, lower retirement age is toast, too.