Purpose

To inform agencies of the implementation of new increment codes and corresponding system improvements.

Affected Employees

PSC (Professional Staff Congress) Instructional and Non Instructional staff who are in:

Effective Date(s)

New increment codes became effective July 3, 2008.  Automatic processing will occur during Institution Pay Period 11C on 8/15/08.

Background

Employees in certain titles represented by the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) are eligible for annual Increments.

Existing increment codes were not adequate to identify an employee’s status/movement within the PSC salary schedule.

OSC Actions

OSC, in conjunction with CUNY Office of Human Resources Management/Human Resources Operations and Systems (OHRM/HROS) has created new increment codes to replace the existing increment codes. This new increment code system has been created to enhance the identification of employees’ position/status within the salary schedule and to improve the processing of automatically applied increment payments.

January - January increments will be identified with a four digit increment code beginning ‘01xx.’ The last two digits will indicate whether an increment should be applied during the next scheduled increment payments.

• Employees with salaries below the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) who are due an increment during the next scheduled application of increments are identified using ‘0101.’
• Employees with salaries below the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) who are not due an increment during the next scheduled application of increments are identified using ‘0103.’

July - July increments will be identified with a four digit increment code beginning ‘07xx.’ The last two digits will indicate whether an increment should be applied during the next scheduled increment payments.

• Employees with salaries below the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) who are due an increment during the next scheduled application of increments are identified using ‘‘0701.’
• Employees with salaries below the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) who are not due an increment during the next scheduled application of increments are identified using ‘0703.’

‘Last 1 year step’  (Max) - Old increment codes 03, 15, 20, 25, and 30 will be replaced with increment codes that identify the year that the employee reached the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) as follows:

• Employees on the January increment schedule will be identified using ‘11YY.’ The YY indicates the last two digits of the year the employee received the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) on the salary schedule.
• Employees on the July increment schedule will be identified using ‘77YY.’ The YY indicates the last two digits of the year the employee received the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) on the salary schedule.
• Increment code ‘1198’ or ‘7798’ will replace Increment Code 25 or 30 for employees already at the 7 year step where the Max year is not easily identified. Refer to “Agency Actions” below for further instructions.
• During normal processing of January or July Increments, the appropriate ‘5 year step’ or ‘7 year step’ will automatically be applied based on the year indicated in the increment code for employees who have reached the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max).

Salary Range - Employees in titles whose salary schedule is a range (not steps) will be identified with the new Increment Code 8888.

REM/Dual - Employees in REM/Dual titles will be identified with the new Increment Code 9999 (016839 Professor/Asst Admin and 016855 HEO/Asst Admin).

Benefits of New Increment Code System

• Reduced risk of inappropriate payments
• Reduced workload tracking biannual increment code changes
• Reduced workload tracking movement to 5 or 7 year step
• Increased efficiency in automatic processing of increments
• Increased ease of tracking increment status
• Enhanced Auto approvals and validation processing

Automatic Processing

OSC will insert a DTA/CIC row effective July 3, 2008 and update the old increment code to the new increment code as described above. OSC will update the increment codes on all existing subsequent rows, as long as the subsequent rows meet the update criteria.

Note: All automatic updates will be made with the assumption that CUNY has reviewed the existing increment codes for accuracy and has corrected any inconsistencies.

The old increment codes will be replaced with the new increment codes automatically, except for the increment codes of those employees who were appointed to the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max), ‘5 year step’, or ‘7 year step’ effective other than January 1 or July 1 (see “Agency Actions” below)

Agency Actions

Agencies may begin using the new increment codes in Pay Period 12C, paychecks dated September 11, 2008.

• Agencies must submit a DTA/CIC to identify employees whose appointment or early movement is to the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max), the 5 year step or 7 year step, on an effective date other than January 1 or July 1, by using Increment Code ‘4444.’ The Anniversary Date field should be completed with the effective date of the appointment or early movement. Agencies must submit a PAY/INC request to advance these employees to the ‘5year step,’ not later than upon completion of five (5) years of service at the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) or to the ‘7 year step,’ not later than upon the completion of two (2) years of service at the ‘5 year step.’
• Agencies must submit a DTA/CIC to reflect the appropriate increment code (11YY) for employees in the following titles who have reached the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max):
  • 016105 Law School Library Prof
  • 016079 Law School Library Assoc Prof
  • 016080 Law School Library Asst Prof
• If appropriate, agencies must submit a DTA/CIC upon an employee’s Return from Leave to revise the increment code due to loss of service and/or submit a PAY/INC request to pay an increment if the employee had completed the appropriate amount of service prior to the leave of absence. The agency should refer to the PSC bargaining agreement or contact OHRM/HROS for questions regarding eligibility.
• Agencies may submit a DTA/CIC transaction, effective 7/3/08 and forward, upon determination of applicable the ‘Last 1 year step’ (Max) year increment code for those employees now identified by the new ‘1198’ or ‘7798’ increment codes.

Listings

After the automatic increment updates have been processed, the following listings will be provided to the University Manager of Payroll Systems and Operations at CUNY Office of Human Resources Management, for distribution to Payroll Officers:

Future Dated Rows Not Processed

This list identifies employees whose subsequent rows were not processed because a change occurred on the subsequent row that no longer meets the update criteria (position change, increment code, salary change or off step, etc).

Employees Not on Step

This list identifies employees who did not receive the automatic increment code update because the current salary did not match the current increment code or salary was off step or Position Data and Job Data did not match.

Increment Code Update Process Completed

This list identifies employees whose increment code was updated successfully.

Questions

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