Provisional employee for decades? Advice needed
I'm trying to seek answers for my father. He began working for the city in the mid 80s, and left city employment on workers comp back in 2015, but never officially retired due to injury and mourning the sudden loss of his wife, my mother. I know it's been a long time, but I'm doing my best to help him finally close out that painful chapter of his life.
I spoke with NYCERS about this and they have him still listed as in service (he never officially retired as I said), but they also told me that oddly enough, he's not eligible for a pension because he only has 3 years vested, despite 30 years of service. When I asked how this was possible they told me that he had been provisional for the majority of that time, up until 2012. Somehow, despite holding many supervisory titles, my father was apparently a provisional employee for around 25 years. How is this possible? NYCERS said there was nothing to be done about this other than for him to request a refund of his contributions, but I can't in good faith just say "oh well!" and leave it at that.
Has anyone been in this type of situation? How is it even legal for someone to be provisional for 25 years when the limit according to city laws is supposedly 9 months? Looking for any guidance or advice with fighting this for my dad - he deserves better. Should he have followed up on this years ago? Absolutely. Grief does strange things to a person. He has become dejected about the whole thing but I'm not giving up just yet.