Purpose

To provide agency instructions for processing the retroactive Elevator Mechanic Salary Increases.

Affected Employees

CUNY employees in the title of Elevator Mechanic

Background

The New York City Comptroller’s Final Order and Determination for the skilled trade of Elevator Mechanic provides for the following retroactive salary increases.

Additional information is provided in the 02/19/14 memorandum from Carmelo Batista, Jr., University Executive Director of Classified Staff Labor Relations.

Processing Date

The increases may be submitted beginning in Institution Pay Period 26C, paychecks dated 04/03/14

Agency Actions

To pay the retroactive salary increases to eligible employees in the title of Elevator Mechanic, the agency must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code CRT (Chg Rate), the Effective Date associated with the appropriate salary increase and the corresponding New Hourly Rate in the Pay Rate field.

If the employee has a row(s) on the Job Data page subsequent to any of the rows inserted above in which the employee remains eligible, the agency must submit a Pay Change on the Job Action Requests page using the Reason code CRT (Chg Rate), the Effective Date of the existing row and the updated salary for each row regardless of the employee’s Payroll Status.

To ensure all rows requiring an update are processed, the agency should submit requests in effective dated order beginning with the oldest effective dated row.

Automatic Retroactive Processing

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for regular earnings and Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system based on the employee’s compensation rate, such as OT Skilled Labor – 1.5 (SL1) and Lost Time Hourly (LT3), resulting from payment of the retroactive Elevator Mechanic Salary Increases.

If an employee receives a payment and has worked in more than one agency but has been paid by all agencies in the same Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency.

If an employee receives a payment and has worked in more than one agency and has been paid in more than one Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, the retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency of the Employee Record Number in which the payment was made.

Agency Actions – Retroactive Processing

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, agencies must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as Lost Time Override (LTO).

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 had 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 RGH 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 Skilled Labor (SL1 and SL2), 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 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, the agency must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using the Earnings Code AJR.

Deduction Information for Inactive Employees

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

Tax Information

These monies are taxable income, will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and are subject to all employment taxes and income taxes. Income taxes will be calculated using the employee’s current Tax Marital Status and Withholding Allowances on the Update Employee Tax Data page.

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 associated amount. The description of each earnings code and the associated amount will appear on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice unless there are more than 13 earnings codes. For these employees, agencies should utilize Locked Query #49 to identify a complete list of all regular earnings and retroactive adjustments.

Questions

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

Questions regarding Deductions may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.

Questions regarding Taxes should be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.