294 - Transfer of retirement membership, contributions, reserves and other credits of policemen and firemen, and certain other persons.

§  294. Transfer of retirement membership, contributions, reserves and  other credits of policemen and firemen, and certain other persons.    a.  The  membership  in  the  employees'  retirement system of policemen and  firemen on the effective date of this article, and of  all  persons  who  are members of such system on such date and contributing pursuant to the  provisions  of  sections  eighty-one to eighty-eight, inclusive, of this  chapter as in force and effect immediately prior to the  effective  date  of   this  article,  shall  be  transferred  to  the  retirement  system  established by this article on the  effective  date  thereof.  All  such  persons transferred to the retirement system established pursuant to the  provisions  of  this  article  shall  be  entitled  to all prior service  credits and member service credits and to all  the  rights,  privileges,  immunities, benefits, refunds, increases, advances, insurance, pensions,  annuities,  retirement  allowances, death benefits and options and shall  be subject to all obligations, dues, duties and  requirements  to  which  they  were entitled or were subject, as the case may be, pursuant to the  provisions of article two of this chapter. Persons becoming  members  of  the  retirement  system  established by this article subsequent to March  thirty-first, nineteen hundred sixty-seven,  and  who  are  entitled  to  credit  for  service  rendered  as a member of the employees' retirement  system shall be entitled to the same credit for such service pursuant to  this article.    b. Accumulated contributions, reserves and any other credits  standing  to  the  credit  of  persons enumerated in subdivision a of this section  shall be transferred to the credit of such  persons  in  the  retirement  system  established  by  this  article.  Members  so  transferred  shall  continue to contribute at the same rate as applied to them  individually  in  the  employees'  retirement  system  and  they  shall continue to be  entitled to the same  rights,  benefits  and  privileges  as  they  were  entitled  to  as  members  of  the  employees'  retirement system on the  effective date of this article.