Notwithstanding the provisions of section 43:1-1 of the Revised Statutes and of the article to which this act is supplementary, any county employee of a first-class county having a population of less than 800,000, as defined in the article to which this act is supplementary, who, at the time of the effective date of this act, is ineligible to the benefits provided by the said article by reason of having accepted employment after reaching the age of 45 years and who was at the time of accepting such employment under the age of 55 years may, within 2 months after this act becomes effective become a member of the fund established under article 1 of chapter 10 of Title 43 of the Revised Statutes:

(1) by payment into the fund, in such manner as shall be determined by the pension commission, of all arrears, with interest as the pension commissioner shall determine to be due in order to give such employee the same standing as a member of said fund as all other members who joined said pension fund when the law providing for such fund became effective, in which case the rate of interest shall be 3% per annum on the unpaid balance and the maximum length of time for the payment of arrears shall be 5 years from the date of the application to join the fund; or

(2) upon written application in which case the regular deductions from the salary of such employee shall commence upon the filing of such written application and he shall be entitled to the same benefits as a new employee then joining the fund would receive.

L.1959, c. 193, p. 775, s. 1.