Division of Housing and Community Renewal Bulletin No. DH-45

Subject
April 2010 Salary Increases for Employees Represented by the Rent Regulation Services Unit (RRSU)
Date Issued
March 23, 2010

Purpose

To explain OSC’s automatic processing and to provide instructions for agency processing.

Affected Employees

Employees in Bargaining Unit 67 who meet the eligibility criteria

Background

Chapter 49 of the Laws of 2008 implements the agreement between the State of New York and the Rent Regulation Services Unit and provides for a General Salary Increase effective April 1, 2010.

Effective Date(s)

4/1/10 Administration - Paychecks dated 4/28/10, Pay Period 1L

Contract Provisions and Eligibility Criteria

April 1, 2010 General Salary Increase

The legislation provides for a 4% Salary Increase for employees in graded and NS (SG 600) positions, trainees (SG 800) and hourly employees. The agreement also provides for an additional increase to the Job Rate of certain salary grades on the April 2010 salary schedule. Employees whose salaries are increasing to the Job Rate with the application of the April 2010 performance advance and those already at Job Rate will be eligible.

  • April 1, 2010 Salary Schedule. Grades 18 - 32 are affected by the increase to Job Rate.
  • Annual employees whose salaries are below Job Rate receive a 4% increase rounded to the nearest dollar.
  • Annual employees whose salaries are equal to Job Rate will be increased to the new Job Rate
  • Annual employees whose salaries are greater than Job Rate will receive a 4% increase rounded to the nearest dollar or the new Job Rate, whichever is greater.
  • Hourly employees receive a 4% increase rounded to the nearest cent.

Exceptions:

  • No Increase for FEE basis employees, except for employees budgeted as per diem with a Pay Basis Code of FEE.
  • No Increase for employees who were on a Leave of Absence for a Reason unrelated to Workers’ Compensation or Military Leave on the effective date of the increase until the employee returns from leave.

OSC Actions

After payroll processing for Pay Period 1L is completed, OSC will process the April 2010 Salary Increases for eligible employees whose Pay Basis Code is ANN or HRY as follows:

  • OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the increase using the Action/Reason code of PAY/SAC (Pay Rate Change/Mass Salary Increase) for employees who are Active, on a Paid Leave of Absence (except Military Stipend) or on Workers’ Compensation Leave. The row will be inserted effective 4/1/10.
  • OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the increase using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary) for annual employees and PAY/CRT (Pay Rate Change/Change Rate) for hourly employees who are Inactive or on a Leave of Absence (except Workers’ Compensation Leave) only if the employee subsequently returns to Active status in an eligible position in Pay Period 1 but after the effective date of the increase. The row will be inserted using the effective date of the Rehire or Return from Leave action.
  • OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the increase using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary) for annual employees and PAY/CRT (Pay Rate Change/Change Rate) for hourly employees who are newly appointed or who transfer into an eligible position in Pay Period 1 but after the effective date of the increase.The row will be inserted using the effective date of the Hire, Position Change or Transfer action.
  • OSC will automatically insert rows in the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the increase using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary) for annual employees and PAY/CRT (Pay Rate Change/Change Rate) for hourly employees for all subsequent rows provided the employee remained in an eligible position.

Exceptions:

  • If the employee’s NYS Grade equals 600 and the Equated to Grade and Approved Salary Rate fields on Position Data are both populated, a row will not be automatically inserted.
  • If the employee’s Sal Admin Plan, Bargaining Unit or Grade on Job Data does not match the corresponding fields on Position Data; a row will not be automatically inserted.
  • If the employee’s salary on a Job row is less than the Hiring Rate of the grade on the existing 2009 Salary Schedule, a row will not be automatically inserted.

If an employee has an increment code of 2222, a row will not be automatically inserted.

Agency Actions

The following procedures must be used by the agency when submitting transactions in Pay Period 1L: For transactions requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date on or before 4/1/10 (Administration):

  • The agency must not include the 2010 Salary Increase or, Performance Advance in the Pay Rate field on the Job Action Request page. The April 2009 Salary Schedule must be used to calculate the salary.
  • The agency must report the proper Increment Code for April 2010.

For transactions requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date after 4/1/10 (Administration):

  • The agency must not include the 2010 Salary Increase in the Pay Rate field on the Job Action Request page, but must include the Performance Advance from the April 2009 Salary Schedule, if applicable.
  • The agency must report the projected Increment Code based on the employee’s next performance advance cycle.
Employees Who Receive an Increased Hiring Rate in Pay Period 1

Employees who receive an Increased Hiring Rate on or after the payment effective date may not be entitled to have the increase applied to their entire salary. OSC will manually update the salaries after the automatic increase is applied.If any additional corrections are needed, agencies should submit transactions as soon as possible in order to avoid an overpayment to the employee.

Administration Agencies Only: New Hire transactions submitted in Pay Period 1 must use the Hiring Rate from the 2009 Salary Schedule. The automatic validation salary warning message, “Requested salary rate must be at the hiring rate when Action of PAY and Reason of NEW is used,” will appear as the new 2010 Salary Schedules will be loaded in PayServ. Please ignore this warning message.

Composite Salaries

Employees with composite salaries will not be processed automatically. Beginning in Pay Period 2, agencies must review employees in composite positions (identified by Increment Code 2222) and submit a Job Action Request using the appropriate Action/Reason code indicated below to pay the proper salary increase.

  • PAY/SAC - For transactions effective 4/1/10
  • PAY/CSL – For transactions effective after 4/1/10

Agencies also should update General Comments.

Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing

NHRP709 Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

The NHRP709 report will be available for agency review prior to the processing of the automatic increases. The report will be available on 4/2/10 and identifies employees who will not receive an automatic increase. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage and Salary. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary will not be increased with one of the following messages:

  • NYS Position has both equated grade and NTE
  • Position and job do not match
  • Salary below hiring rate

If an employee appears on this report but is due an increase, the agency must:

  • Submit the necessary corrections on the Job Action Request page to correct the data on the incorrect Job row(s) using the appropriate Action/Reason code(s). If the row(s) is corrected prior to Pay Period 1, the automatic increase will be applied.
  • Submit a Position Change Request to the Position Management Unit if the data on the Position Data page is incorrect in PayServ but is correct in NYSTEP. The position will be updated to reflect the change and the automatic increase will be applied provided the agency’s position request contains the same information as the position information in NYSTEP.

Control-D Reports Available After Processing

The following Control-D reports will be available for agency review after processing of the automatic increases:

NHRP704 Mass Salary Increase Report

This report identifies all employees who received the Salary Increase and identifies all employees’ salaries that were automatically increased in an eligible bargaining unit. Other fields on the report include the EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Effective Date, Effective Sequence, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Action Reason and Increment Code.

NHRP709 Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

This report identifies all employees who did not receive an automatic Salary Increase on one or more Job Data rows. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage and Salary. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary was not increased with one of the following messages:

  • NYS Position has both equated grade and NTE
  • Position and job do not match
  • Sal below hiring rate

Questions

Questions regarding increases may be directed to the Salary Determination mailbox.

Questions regarding position may be directed to the Position Management mailbox.