200 Navajo Nation workers decide to take early retirement

A bout 200 employees have decided to take early retirement as part of an effort by Navajo Nation officials to trim the tribal government.

The tribe's retirement office established a program recently to encourage employees to take early retirement, offering them incentives to do so.

Rodger Martinez, head of the retirement office, said 875 of the 5,000 or so employees of the tribe were eligible to take advantage of the program.

"We were hoping that as many as half would do so," he said.

The idea is much like corporate downsizing. With prices for oil and other energy products at or near lows, the Navajo Nation has been facing shortfalls and officials implemented the early retirement program in an effort to reduce employment and save money.

In order to entice employees to consider early retirement, the tribal retirement office approved a program that would allow early retirees to add an extra three years onto the number of years they have worked for the tribe. This would increase a person's lifetime pension benefits by six percent.

The tribe also agreed, for those who have not reached 60 years of age, to add an extra two years to their age and to contribute 70 percent of the cost for continuation of the health insurance until the person qualifies for Medicare at the age of 65.

This was a good deal, said Martinez, for tribal employees who were looking at retiring in the next few years since it would give them an opportunity to retire early without having their benefits reduced.

Although the deadline for signing up for the program was Dec. 15, Martinez said the tribe won't know the exact number for a few more weeks since there are a number of employees who applied before the deadline but haven't made a final decision on whether they will accept the offer.

"As long as you applied before the deadline, you still can accept the deal," Martinez said.

One factor that may have influenced some employees was the requirement that anyone who accepted the offer would have to sign a document releasing the tribe from "all claims, demands, actions or liabilities you may have against the Nation of whatever kind ... "

The document also requires the person to agree to "never institute a claim of any kind against the Nation or those associated with the Nation, including claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as well as any state of federal court, including but not limited to claims related in any way to your employment with the Nation or termination of that employment."

For some who were looking at early retirement, this was somewhat daunting but Martinez said this was a common practice for governments - as well as private businesses - before retirement benefits were approved.

Because of this, prospective retirees were advised strongly by retirement personnel to show the document to an attorney before signing to see if this would affect any plans the employee may have to file a grievance or sue the tribe.

One employee who looked at early retirement said he felt the contract "only favors the government and employees will not understand what they are waiving without the help of an attorney which they have to pay for out of their own pocket."

Martinez said that the tribe is not trying to take advantage of employees and most have no problem because they are not thinking of filing any grievances or lawsuits.

He said only two or three employees who came by to apply for the program questioned the contract because they had or were contemplating filing a grievance.

In one case, Martinez said, the retirement office was able to take the person's case to the Department of Justice where an attorney agreed that a waiver could be written into the contract to allow the grievance to be filed.

As to how much the tribe will benefit from having 200 less employees, the jury is still out on that.

The reason is that the early retirement program had to be offered to all tribal employees and not just those who were paid for through the tribe's general fund.

Many of the tribe's employees are paid through funding that comes from a federal or state grant. Cutting back on that position would not affect the tribe's general fund and more than likely that program would refill the position.

While some positions funded by the tribe could be abolished because other tribal employees could assume those responsibilities, Martinez pointed out that there were also some positions that were so important to the operation of the program that they would have to refilled.

But even in those cases, the chances are good that whoever was hired would be at a lower pay scale than the person they would be replacing, so the tribe would see some savings.

Martinez said this wasn't the first time that the tribe offered the early retirement program.

The previous two attempts were not very successful, he said, because there was no big need to reduce the number of tribal employees because tribal revenues were up.

Back to top ^