Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, any person who is transferred from state to local employment pursuant to Chapter 816 of the Acts of Assembly of 1988, and who is a member of the Virginia Retirement System at the time of the transfer, shall continue to be a member of the System during the period of local employment. Any such transferred employee shall remain a member of the System under the same terms and conditions as would apply if the transferred employee had remained as a state employee, so long as the employee is employed with a local health department or returns to state employment. For purposes of any employment of the transferred employee as a state employee after local employment, the membership in the System during local employment shall be treated the same as any other membership in the System.

The board shall collect and pay all employee and employer contributions to the Virginia Retirement System for retirement and group life insurance in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 1 (§ 51.1-124.1 et seq.) of Title 51.1.