Section 7: Pensionable service

7. Pensionable service (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3)— “service”— (a) means pensionable service for the period commencing from the date an officer begins to draw salary from the statutory body to the date he leaves the statutory body, and in respect of which contributions were payable to the Fund; S42 – 5 [Issue 6] Statutory Bodies Pension Funds Act (b) includes past service which conforms to the conditions specified in section 13A or the individual account, as the case may be; and (c) in relation to an officer in a local authority, includes service in a temporary or probationary capacity where such service immediately precedes appointment in a pensionable office of that local authority. (2) The period of service of an officer while he is under the age of 18 shall not be reckoned as pensionable service. (3) Absence on approved leave, with or without pay, shall, provided contributions for the period of absence have been paid, be reckoned as part of pensionable service. (4) Where, owing to the age of an officer who is in the service of a statutory body after 1 July 1998 but before 1 January 2013, the length of service of the officer is likely to fall short of the period of service that would have otherwise earned the officer a full pension on retirement at the age of 65, the officer, on joining the statutory body, may elect to pay such contribution as is determined by SICOM in respect of that shortfall, as would render him eligible for a full pension, which shortfall shall be reckoned as pensionable service. (5) An officer already in the service of a statutory body on 1 July 1998, and whose length of service is likely to fall short of the period of service that would have otherwise earned him full pension on retirement at the age of 60, or the appropriate new retirement date specified in the second column of the Second Schedule corresponding to the appropriate month and year of birth specified in the first column of that Schedule, may elect to pay such contribution as is determined by SICOM in respect of that shortfall, as would render him eligible for a full pension, which shortfall shall be reckoned as pensionable service. (6) The period during which an officer domiciled in the Island of Mauritius is required to serve in Agalega or St. Brandon shall be reckoned as pensionable service at the rate of one and a half times or, in the case of an officer appointed on or after 1 January 2013, at such rates as may be prescribed. [S. 7 amended by Act 7 of 2000; s. 4 of Act 30 of 2004 w.e.f. 1 July 2003; s. 35 (e) of Act 18 of 2008 w.e.f. 1 July 2008; s. 26 (f) of Act 26 of 2012 w.e.f. 22 December 2012; s. 27 (b) of Act 26 of 2013 w.e.f. 1 January 2013.]