Ballot measure would let firefighters get full pensions three years earlier

San Francisco voters in November will determine whether firefighters will be able to retire with full pensions three years earlier than most can now.

Unofficially called the Fire Department Service Retirement Pension, the measure would allow all firefighters to retire with full benefits at age 55, rather than 58. Presently, the department has a two-tiered system that allows firefighters hired before 2012 — which is when The City upped the retirement age for all workers — to retire at 55. The measure would apply retroactively to firefighters who have been hired since then.

Backers of the provision — which include not only the firefighters union, but the entire Board of Supervisors , which voted Tuesday to put it on the ballot, and mayoral candidates Daniel Lurie and Mark Farrell — say the effective reduction in retirement age is justified by new data that indicates that firefighters have a significantly higher cancers risks than other city workers or the general population.

Lurie said he was swayed to support the measure after talking with younger and older workers at 10 or 11 different fire houses around The City.


https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/san-francisco-firefighters-push-earlier-retirement-measure/article_fdd22e52-513a-11ef-baa6-932aa9d56278.html