CUNY Bulletin No. CU-271

Subject

Retroactive Salary Increases for Employees Represented by the Professional Staff Congress

Date Issued

September 25, 2006

Purpose

To inform agencies of raise eligibility and automatic processing and to provide agencies with the procedures for reporting certain salary increases and retroactive adjustments

Affected Employees

CUNY employees in Bargaining Units T8, TC, GA and AJ

Background

Pursuant to the Memorandum of Agreement between the City University of New York and the Professional Staff Congress for the term November 1, 2002 through September 17, 2007, and Chapter 116 of the Laws of 2006 which calls for General Salary Increases for eligible employees

Effective Date(s)

General Salary Increases will be processed in Pay Period 14C, paychecks dated October 12, 2006

Contract Provisions and Eligibility

Effective May 1, 2004, all full and part-time employees who are Active or on Paid or Unpaid Leave in Bargaining Units AJ, GA, TC and T8 shall receive a General Salary Increase of .5%.*
Effective May 1, 2005, all full and part-time employees who are Active or on Paid or Unpaid Leave in Bargaining Units AJ, GA, TC and T8 shall receive a General Salary Increase of 2.75% (Compounded).
Effective May 1, 2006, all full and part-time employees who are Active or on Paid or Unpaid Leave in Bargaining Units AJ, GA, TC and T8 shall receive a General Salary Increase of 3% (Compounded).

Increases will be applied in accordance with the criteria set by the CUNY Office of Faculty and Staff Relations, as outlined for the various titles in the PSC Operational Requirements document distributed to payroll officers at the workshop on September 8, 2006.

*The Memorandum of Agreement provides for a 2.5% salary increase effective 5/1/04 and a 2.75% increase effective 5/1/05. However, employees are only entitled to 0.5% of the 2.5% in retroactive payment for 2004-05, with the remaining 2% representing a compulsory contribution to the CUNY Welfare Fund, a benefit administration program. The remaining portion of the 2.5% increase for 2004 is compounded with the 2.75% increase for 2005, resulting in a net salary increase of 4.795% effective 5/1/05.

OSC Actions

OSC will apply automatic increases for employees in the following groups using the Action code of PAY and a new Action/Reason code of CAR (CUNY Adjusted Raise) for transactions effective dated 5/1/04 to 4/30/06. For salaried employees, all raise rows effective 5/1/06 will be inserted with the Action/Reason of SAC. For hourly employees, all raise rows effective 5/1/06 will have the Action/Reason code of CRT. All subsequent rows for both HRY and Annual employees will be Reason code CSL.

Annual Employees in Titles with Steps on PSC Salary Schedules

All annual salaried employees who are in titles with steps who are on step on the 2002 salary schedule will be updated as required to the corresponding step on the “applied” 2004 schedule, and the 2005 and 2006 schedules, provided the employee’s Job record and Position record match on grade, salary plan and bargaining unit.

Non-teaching Hourly Adjuncts with Steps on the PSC Salary Schedule

All hourly employees in non-teaching titles with steps who are on step on the 2002 salary schedule will be updated as required to the corresponding step on the “applied” 2004 schedule, and the 2005 and 2006 schedules.

Teaching Adjuncts on Contract Pay

All Teaching Adjuncts who are paid on Contract Pay will receive an automatic adjustment for previously paid Contract Earnings for Spring 2004 through Summer 2006. Adjustments will be calculated based on criteria set by CUNY OFSR and will be automatically inserted into the Time Entry page using the Earn Code AJR

Exceptions: Contract employees who had an OVP on the Additional Pay page effective 1/22/04 or later, or had a check returned via AC 230 since 1/22/04 in the same record number will not be automatically adjusted for any semester. In addition, Continuing Education Teachers who are paid on Contract Pay will not be adjusted automatically.

Agency Actions

Agencies are responsible for calculating and submitting increases for employees in the groups identified below, as previously identified on the listings distributed to the CUNY payroll officers on September 8, 2006. The following Action/Reason codes must be used to report these increases.

For salaried employees:

To report increases effective 5/1/04 through 4/30/06, the Action/ Reason of PAY/CAR must be used.
To report increases effective 5/1/06, the Action/Reason of PAY/CFS must be used.
To report increases after 5/1/06, the Action/Reason of PAY/CSL must be used.

For hourly employees:

To report increases effective 5/1/04 through 4/30/06, the Action/ Reason of PAY/CAR must be used.
To report increases effective 5/1/06 or later, the Action/Reason of PAY/CRT must be used.

Group 1: Annual Salary with Steps

All annual salaried employees who are not on step due to the inclusion of SAB or RRI will not be processed automatically. For these employees, the agencies must submit the increases on the Job Request page for only the effective dated rows appearing on the report.
For employees who appear on the report for reasons other than SAB or RRI, the agencies must have the Position and/or Job record corrected before the raises are automatically applied in Pay Period 14C. These corrections will enable automatic processing.

Group 2: Annual Employees with Salary Ranges (not Law School)

Group 3: Annual Pay Basis – Law School Titles

Group 4: Annual Pay Basis – Titles with REMs

Raises for employees in the above groups must be submitted by the agencies on the Job Request page for all applicable effective dated rows appearing on the raise listings.

Group 5: Hourly Pay Basis – Non-Teaching Adjuncts with Steps

Employees who appear on this listing are employees whose hourly rate is off step on the 2002 schedule because either the employee’s Job and/or Position record is incorrect. Because no employee in this group should ever have a salary rate that is off step, the agencies must determine whether the Position and/or Job record is incorrect. Then the agencies must have the Position and/or Job record corrected before the raises are automatically applied in Pay Period 14C. These corrections will enable automatic processing.

Group 6: Hourly Pay Basis – Non-Teaching Law School Titles with Ranges

Raises for all employees in this group must be submitted on Job Request by Queens College for all effective dated rows appearing on the raise listing.

Group 7: Teaching Adjuncts on Contract Pay

The Group 7 report identifies employees paid on Contract Pay (other than Continuing Education Teachers) between Spring 2004 and Summer 2006 who had an OVP entered on the Additional Pay page with an effective date of 1/22/04 or later and/or had a check returned via an AC 230 for earnings dates of 1/22/04 or later.
For these employees, the current agency must calculate and report an adjustment for all semesters worked, using the Earn Code AJR in the Time Entry page. The earns begin and end date should be the last date adjusted. A Time Entry comment must be entered to indicate the whole period of the Contract Pay adjustment.

Group 8: Continuing Education Teachers on Contract Pay

The Group 8 report identifies Continuing Education Teachers paid on Contract Pay between Spring 2004 and Summer 2006.
For these employees, the current agency must calculate and report an adjustment for all semesters worked, provided the employee is eligible for an increase based on the eligibility criteria related to Continuing Education Teachers. If the employee is due an adjustment, the adjustment must be reported using the Earn Code AJR in the Time Entry page, as described for Group 7 above.

Group 9: Continuing Education Teachers – Hourly Pay Basis

Raises for employees in this group must be submitted by the agencies if the employee is eligible based on the eligibility criteria related to Continuing Education Teachers.
The increases must be submitted on Job Request for all applicable effective dated rows appearing on the raise listing.

Miscellaneous:

Increases to miscellaneous earnings, such as assigned overtime, adjunct payments, override codes, must be manually calculated and reported by the agency using the AJR earn code. The agency must calculate and submit retroactive adjustments for the following miscellaneous earnings that will not be adjusted automatically: ADJ, AJT, AJR, AOT, LTO,PLO, RGO, SLO, Y01, Z01, Y72, Z72, YAR, ZAR, Y76, Z76, YLO, ZLO, Y35, Z35, YRO, ZRO, Y62, Z62. The AJR earns begin and end date should be the last date being adjusted. A Time Entry comment must be entered to indicate the whole period of the adjustment.

For earnings that will be automatically adjusted by the system such as RGH and RGS, agencies must submit the applicable adjustment to adjust the system-calculated retroactive adjustment, whenever the earnings were previously reported in the Time Entry page as a single entry and the dates reported overlap the effective date of an increase. The system will adjust all earnings based on the salary rate in effect on the earnings end date.

Increases for employees who have had check reversals or exchanges, or were paid on typewritten payrolls may not be processed correctly by the system. Therefore, the agencies should review the retroactive adjustment calculated by the system for these employees and submit the necessary adjustment in a subsequent pay period.

Automatic Retroactive Processing and Other Agency Actions

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments resulting from the 2004, 2005 and 2006 General Salary Increases.

For employees who had a negative retroactive adjustment that was previously “turned off,” the retroactive adjustment for the same time period will be “turned off” again. After the increases are processed, OSC will provide the agencies with a listing to identify these employees. The agencies will be required to submit an adjustment in a subsequent pay period, if applicable.

Automatic retroactive payments will be processed for certain earnings reported on the Time Entry page. The following is a list of the earn codes that will be automatically adjusted: DCS, LSJ, LT1, PLS, RGS, SLS, RGH, Y58, Z58, Y17, Z17, Y33, Z33, Y74, Z74.

Additional Information Regarding Retroactive Payments

For employees who have worked in more than one agency since the effective date of an increase, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency, provided the employee was paid by all agencies using the same Employee Record Number.
For employees who have worked in more than one agency and have been paid from more than one Employee Record Number since the effective date of an increase, the retroactive adjustment for earnings in each Employee Record Number will be paid in the most current agency, under each Employee Record Number.
For employees who are Inactive or on Leave Without Pay at the end of Pay Period 14C, the retroactive raise adjustment will be applied to any overpayment (OVP) set up in Additional Pay that has a Goal Amount and Goal Balance that are not equal, provided the OVP does not have an End Date. The system will recover the entire overpayment, provided the check is sufficient. If the overpayment balance is greater than the gross amount of the check, the entire check will be taken.

Normal Processing in Pay Period 14C

When submitting Pay Changes, Position Changes, and Transfers for employees in titles whose raise will be calculated automatically, the agencies must use the salary rate on the 2002 salary schedule and, if an increment code is required, the projected increment code for January or July 2007.

When submitting Pay Changes, Position Changes, and Transfers for employees in titles whose raise will not be calculated automatically, the agencies must report the new 2006 salary rate, and, if applicable, increases for all effective dates appearing on the raise listings distributed on September 8, 2006.

When submitting Return from Leaves, LOAs, PLAs, Terminations and Retirements in Pay Period 14C for employees in titles that will not have a raise automatically applied, the salary rate on the preceding Job row will default on the row inserted directly on Job. Therefore, if the salary rate that defaults on the Job row is incorrect when it is inserted, the agency must enter a PAY/CSL transaction to correct the salary rate on the Job row, using the next highest sequence number for that date.

When submitting Data Changes on Job Request for employees in titles that will not receive an automatic increase, the Data Change must be reported after the applicable Job Request is entered on the Job Request page.

When submitting transactions in Time Entry in Pay Period 14C that require an amount such as RGS and AOT, the agency must calculate the earnings amount using the new rate.

Deductions for Inactive Employees

All general deductions for employees whose status is Terminated, Retired or Deceased will be automatically cancelled by OSC with the exception of the following:

Code	Narrative
274	Professional Staff Congress
290	Professional Staff Congress A/S
249	PSC Dues Grad Assistants
470	PSC Agency Shop Grad Assistants
467	PSC Adjunct Dues
468	PSC Adjunct Agency Shop
403	TIAA Supplemental Retirement Annuity (CUNY)*
406	Strike/Discip Fine
409	CUNY Disciplinary Fine
413	NBE Tax Deferred Annuity *
414	NYT Tax Deferred Annuity *
417	HRC TDA *
419	CUNY TDA Copeland *
425	Repay State Loans/Debt
426	Higher Ed Repay State Loan
582	CUNY SS/Med Deficiency GARNSH (Garnishment)

*Note: A special program will be run to identify any Inactive employee with an active 403,413,414,417 or 419 deduction who did not have a contribution taken for calendar year 2006.

OSC will automatically cancel the deduction code for any Inactive employee who did not have a 2006 deduction taken. If an Inactive employee had a deduction from a 2006 paycheck, the deduction will not be cancelled.

Employees whose current employee status in PayServ is Terminated, Retied, or on a Leave with or without Pay who have since died should have the employee status changed to Deceased by entering a transaction in PayServ using Terminate/Deceased (DEC) with the date of death. Any paycheck issued to a deceased employee on the record will then be correctly taxed with any applicable Federal or State taxes.

Undeliverable Checks

Inactive employees may be eligible for a payment as a result of the salary adjustment. 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. 456.

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).

For recipients of a previously deceased employee’s payroll checks where the Next of Kin Affidavit and Report of Check Exchange forms have been submitted, OSC will accept a photocopy of these forms to process the exchange.

Control-D Report

The following Control-D report is available after processing of the automatic salary increases:

NHRP704 Mass Salary Payment Report

This report identifies all employees who received the General Salary Increase. The report identifies all rows where the employee’s salary was automatically increased in an eligible bargaining unit. Other fields on the report include the EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part Time Percentage, Action Reason and Increment Code.

NHRP591 Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

This report identifies employees who did not receive an automatic General Salary Increase. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part Time Percentage and FTA Salary. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary was not increased for one of the following reasons:

Position and Job do not match
Salary is Off Step on 2002 Salary Schedule

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the University Manager of Payroll Systems and Operations at CUNY Central Office.