Purpose

To explain the agency procedures for reporting rate increases and adjustments for “miscellaneous earnings.”

Affected Employees

CUNY employees in the titles of Carpenter, Carpenter (CUNY) and Supervisor Carpenter

Background

The New York City Comptroller’s Final Order and Determination for the skilled trade of Carpenter, Carpenter (CUNY) and Supervisor Carpenter provides for the following retroactive hourly rate increases.

Additional information is provided in the February 16, 2016 memorandum from Carmelo Batista, Jr., University Executive Director of Classified Staff Labor Relations.

Processing Date(s)

Agencies may begin to submit in Pay Period 25C (Institution), paychecks dated 03/17/2016

Agency Actions

Reporting the Rate Increases

To ensure all Job Action requests are submitted for each employee, the agency should submit requests in effective date order from oldest date to current date. For example, if appropriate, submit the 07/01/08 Pay Change, followed by the 07/01/09, 10/01/10, 07/01/13, 08/20/13 and 07/01/14 Pay Change.

To increase the hourly rate(s), the agency must submit the following requests regardless of the employee’s status:

• For all rate increases, request a Pay Change with the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Chg/CRT (Pay Rate Change/Change Rate) on the Job Action Request page, using the effective date of the appropriate increase, and submit the new hourly rate.
• A separate request must be made for each of the rows that exist on the employee’s Job Data page.

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments for All Miscellaneous Earnings

The agency must calculate and report the retroactive adjustment for all miscellaneous earnings.

The Time Entry Earnings Code AJR – Adjust Raise must be used to report the combined retroactive adjustment for all earnings. The agency must provide an explanation of the adjustment in the General Comments page or on a separate worksheet. If the agency uses a worksheet, the worksheet must be received by OSC Audit Section by the agency deadline for Pay Period 25C.

The Earnings Code AJR must be reported as follows:

Reporting the Overpayment for Overtime Overpaid

Additional information has been provided in the February 16, 2016 memorandum from Carmelo Batista, Jr., University Executive Director of Classified Staff Labor Relations regarding employees in the skilled trade titles of Carpenter and Supervisor Carpenter who received overtime pay at time and one-half (1.5x) after the seventh (7th) hour of work from July 1, 2008 through present and were overpaid. The overpayment will be offset against the retroactive payment they are entitled to receive.

The Time Entry Codes of OTO - Overtime Override and SL2 – OT Skilled Labor – 2.0, which had been previously used to overpay the skilled trade titles of Carpenter and Supervisor Carpenter, must be used to report the overtime and skilled labor OT that was overpaid. The OTO and SL2 should be entered in Time Entry as a negative with the corresponding dates in which it was previously overpaid.

OSC Actions

Processing Automatic Retroactive Adjustments

Provided the agency appropriately submits the applicable increases, OSC will automatically process the retroactive adjustments for all regular hours, RGH, and miscellaneous earnings of LSL, LT3 and PLB, paid to an employee regardless of the employee’s status.

The agency should refer to the AJR procedure above to submit retroactive adjustments for all other miscellaneous earnings.

Revised Rate Chart

A revised rate chart reflecting the new rates and appropriate earnings codes has been issued.

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.

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.

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), original death certificate 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.

Questions

Questions regarding transactions may be emailed 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.