Section 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.