Employee's retirement benefits are forfeited by statute

In Iris v. Public School Retirement Systems, the retired school psychologist sued after a court ruled that he had forfeited $34,000.00 in retirement benefits by earning $5,000.00 by working 271 hours for a third-party independent contractor in a public school setting.  Iris argued that he was unaware of the recent legislation signed by Governor Snyder calling for the forfeiture, and that the penalty was unreasonably severe, given the limited work he had performed.  The Court of Appeals held that the statute was a reasonable exercise of governmental power and enforced it according to its terms. Since the retiree had performed a "core service" in a public school after the statute was adopted, he was required to re-pay the pension and health benefits he had received.