Other Bulletin No. 21

Subject
April 2014 State University Construction Fund (SCF) Management and Confidential (M/C) Salary Increase
Date Issued
July 9, 2014
Status
REVISED
Status Date
July 9, 2014

Purpose

To inform the State University Construction Fund of OSC’s automatic processing of the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically

Affected Employees

Employees in Bargaining Unit 96 who meet the eligibility criteria

Background

The Division of the Budget Bulletin D-1129 provides guidelines regarding the implementation of the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase.

Effective Date(s)

The April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase will be paid using the following effective date and check date:

Pay Cycle/Pay Period Type Payment Effective Date Check Date
Administration Lag 03/27/14 07/30/14

Eligibility Criteria

The following employees are eligible to receive the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase:

  • Employees with a Pay Basis Code of ANN who are in an NS position (Grade 600)
  • Employees with a Pay Basis Code of ANN who are in an NS position (Grade 600) which is equated to a grade (Grade 603-668)

In addition, an employee must be Active or on a Leave With Pay on 07/16/14 (Administration Lag) or on a Leave of Absence on 07/16/14 (Administration Lag) and subsequently return to the payroll to be eligible for the increase.

Employees who are Terminated or Retired on 07/16/14 (Administration Lag) and who are subsequently rehired will have their salary at the time of the rehire determined using the April 1, 2014 SCF M/C Salary Schedule or set via a Budget Director’s Approval (BDA) Form; these employees as well as those employees who are Deceased on 7/16/14; are not eligible for any retroactive increase.

Excluded Employees

Employees who are appointed on or after 04/01/13 to a position with a bargaining unit equal to 96 which has a jurisdictional classification of Exempt Class (JC equals 2) or Pending Exempt (JC equals 7) whose Payroll Status on 03/31/13 is not equal to Active, Leave With Pay or Leave of Absence are not eligible for the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase, including employees who are newly hired.

Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing

The following Control-D report will be available for agency use on 07/03/14 (Administration). This will give agencies time to correct employees’ records, if necessary, prior to the automatic processing of the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase. The report is sorted by Department ID, then alphabetically by employee name.

NHRP709 – Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

This report is a preliminary listing of employees who appear ineligible to receive the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase based on information available as of the date the report is produced. The report does not exclude employees based on status on 07/16/14 (Administration Lag) nor does it exclude employees who are ineligible due to the jurisdictional classification criteria. Included on the report is one or more of the following messages which identifies the reason(s) the employee’s record will not be updated.

  • NYS Position Has Both Equated Grade and NTE
  • Position and Job do not match
  • Increment Code Missing
  • Increment Code Invalid
  • Increment Code Requires Manual Calculation
  • Sal Below Hiring Rate

If an employee appears on this report but is due a salary increase, the agency must take the following action:

  • Submit the appropriate transaction(s) on the Job Action Requests page to correct the information on the Job Data row(s). If the row(s) is corrected prior to Administration Pay Period 8L, the automatic salary increase will be processed.
  • Submit a Position Change Request to the Position Management Unit if the position information is incorrect on the Position Data page in PayServ. The position will be updated to reflect the change and the automatic salary increase will be processed.

OSC Actions

OSC will process the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase for the following employees:

  • If the employee meets the eligibility criteria and has a Payroll Status of Active, Leave With Pay or Leave of Absence due to a Workers’ Compensation Leave (Action/Reason code of Leave of Absence/WCL, WDL, WPS or WSP) on the payment effective date, OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective 03/27/14 (Administration) using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/SAC (Mass Salary Increase).
  • If the employee meets the eligibility criteria but has a Payroll Status of Terminated, Retired or Leave of Absence (not related to a Workers’ Compensation Leave) on the payment effective date and returns to Active status in an eligible position after the payment effective date, OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/CSL (Correct Salary). The row will be inserted using the effective date of the Rehire or Return from Leave action.
  • If the employee is newly hired or transfers into an eligible position after the payment effective date, OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/CSL (Correct Salary). The row will be inserted using the effective date of the Hire, Position Change or Transfer action.
  • OSC will automatically insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/CSL (Correct Salary) for all subsequent rows provided the employee remains in an eligible position.
Calculating the New Compensation Rate

The salary on each inserted row will be calculated as follows:

  • If the employee has a Pay Basis Code of ANN and a Grade equal to 600 (not equated to a grade), OSC will automatically increase the salary by applying 2.00% rounded to the nearest dollar.
  • If the employee has a Pay Basis Code of ANN and a Grade equal to 600 with an equated grade equal to 668, OSC will automatically increase the salary by applying 2.00% rounded to the nearest dollar.
  • If the employee has a Pay Basis Code of ANN and a Grade equal to 600 with an equated grade equal to 603-667, OSC will automatically increase the salary by applying 2.00% rounded to the nearest dollar.
Exceptions

Employees in a composite position (identified by Increment Code 2222) will not be processed automatically.

Control-D Reports Available After Processing

The following Control-D reports will be available for agency review after the automatic increases have been processed. All reports will be sorted by Department ID, then alphabetically by employee name.

NHRP704 – Mass Salary Increase Report

This report identifies all employees who received the automatic April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase. The report identifies all employees’ salaries that were increased in an eligible bargaining unit.

NHRP709 – Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

This report identifies employees who did not receive an automatic April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase. The report does not:

  • Exclude employees based on status on 07/16/14 (Administration Lag).
  • Identify employees who were not automatically updated due to their status on 07/16/14 (Administration Lag).
  • Exclude employees who are ineligible due to the jurisdictional classification criteria.
  • Identify employees who were not automatically updated due to the jurisdictional classification criteria.

Included on the report is one or more of the following messages which identifies the reason(s) the employee’s record was not updated.

  • NYS Position Has Both Equated Grade and NTE
  • Position and Job do not match
  • Increment Code Missing
  • Increment Code Invalid
  • Increment Code Requires Manual Calculation
  • Sal Below Hiring Rate

Agency Actions – Beginning in Administration Pay Period 9L

Composite Positions

Beginning in Administration Pay Period 9L, agencies must review employees in composite positions (identified by Increment Code 2222) and submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the appropriate Reason code (see below) to pay the salary increase. Information regarding the composite position must be included on the General Comments page.

  • Reason code SAC (Mass Salary Increase) – for transactions effective on 03/27/14 (Administration)
  • Reason code CSL (Correct Salary) – for transactions effective after 03/27/14 (Administration)

Automatic Retroactive Processing

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for regular earnings and Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system based on annual salary, such as OT for Annuals (OTA) and Holiday Pay (HPA), resulting from payment of the April 2014 SCF M/C Salary Increase.

Agency Actions – Retroactive Processing

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, beginning in Administration Pay Period 9L, agencies must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as Regular Salary Override (RGO).

Correcting an Automatic Retroactive Adjustment

When certain conditions exist in an employee’s record, the automatic retroactive adjustment may be incorrect. Therefore, the agency is responsible for identifying employees who meet the following conditions and, if necessary, submitting the necessary adjustment.

  • If an employee has a check returned or exchanged on an AC-230 for dates on or after the effective date of the payment, the payroll system does not consider the AC-230 when calculating the automatic retroactive adjustment.
  • If earnings were previously reported using Earnings Code RGS and a date range that exceeded the number of days reported, the system will calculate the adjustment of earnings based on the number of workdays within the range.
  • Adjustments for earnings that are calculated automatically, such as OT for Annuals (OTA), will be calculated incorrectly if the dates previously reported as a single entry on the Time Entry page overlap the effective date of the payment. The system will calculate an adjustment for all earnings reported in a single entry based on the salary in effect on the Earnings End Date.
  • For employees who had a change reported on the Job Data page since the effective date of the payment and the action resulted in an overpayment of earnings, the automatic negative retroactive adjustment may not have been processed because the overpayment was either not recoverable or was recovered using an overpayment earnings code or an AC-230. In this case, the negative retroactive adjustment may be re-generated when the payment is processed. OSC will turn off (not process) the automatic negative adjustment for these employees since in most cases these overpayments were either not recoverable or recovered using another method.

If an overpayment of earnings is identified after the automatic payment is processed but before the paycheck is received by the employee, the employee must be notified of the overpayment and the adjustment that will be reported in a subsequent pay period.

Submitting an Adjustment

To process a retroactive adjustment or correct an automatic retroactive adjustment, agencies must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using the Earnings Code AJR:

Earnings Begin Date: The first date included in the adjustment
Earnings End Date: The last date included in the adjustment
Earn Code: AJR
Amount: Amount to be adjusted
Comments: An explanation of the adjustment

Military Stipend Leave

OSC will recalculate the military stipend amount for employees who were placed on a Paid or Unpaid Military Stipend Leave on or after the effective date of the payment as the result of new military orders.

  • If the employee received a stipend, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective the date the employee is entitled to the increase using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/MSC (Military Stipend Change) and will increase the employee’s biweekly stipend amount. In addition, updates will be made to all subsequent rows requiring an increased biweekly stipend amount.
  • If the employee did not receive a stipend but becomes eligible for a stipend as a result of the payment, OSC will insert the following in PayServ:
    • A row on the employee’s Job Data page effective the date the employee is entitled to a stipend using the Action/Reason code of Paid Leave of Absence/MLS (Mil Stip) and the new biweekly stipend amount
    • A row on the employee’s Job Data page for each affected subsequent row using the Action/Reason code Pay Rate Change/MSC (Military Stipend Change) and the new biweekly stipend amount
    • A row on the Time Entry page using the Earnings Code MSP (Military Stipend Payment) to pay the stipend for each pay period the employee is eligible
  • Any additional adjustment that is required due to the increased biweekly stipend amount that will not be calculated automatically will be reported by OSC on the Time Entry page using the Earnings Code AMS (Adjust Military Stipend).

Undeliverable Checks

If the agency has made an effort to deliver the check to the employee but the check has been returned and is undeliverable, the agency should forward the check to the NYS Department of Tax and Finance, Division of Treasury, per instructions in Payroll Bulletin No. 908.

Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P) and a Report of Check Exchange (Form AC 1476-P). If a Next of Kin Affidavit has been previously submitted for a deceased employee’s payroll check, OSC will accept a photocopy of this form along with a new Report of Check Exchange.

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

All retroactive adjustments will be displayed on the Payroll Register using the appropriate Earnings Code and the amount paid and will be displayed on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice using the appropriate Earnings Description and the amount paid unless the number of earnings codes exceeds 13. Agencies should utilize Locked Query #49 to identify a complete list of regular earnings and retroactive adjustments if there are more than 13 earnings codes.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Earnings mailbox.

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

Questions regarding Military information may be directed to the Military Stipend mailbox.