Purpose

To provide agencies instructions for processing the rate increases, lump sum cash payments and adjustments for miscellaneous earnings.

Affected Employees

CUNY employees in the title of Electrician, Electrician’s Helper and Supervisor Electrician

Background

The rate increases and lump sum cash payments are pursuant to the New York City Comptroller’s Consent Determination dated 05/03/2017. This Determination covers the period of 5/14/2010 through 7/10/2019 and provides for four retroactive salary increases effective 11/14/2013, 11/14/2014, 11/14/2015 and 11/14/2016. Additional future dated salary increases are effective 11/14/2017 and 11/14/2018. The Determination also provides the schedule for the lump sum cash payments.

The revised rate chart and additional information are contained in a memorandum dated 06/06/2017 from Carmelo Batista, Jr.

Effective Date(s)

The retroactive increases may be submitted in Pay Period 8C (Institution), paychecks dated 7/20/2017. The lump sum cash payments may be submitted upon OSC approval of the payment calculation worksheets.

Eligibility Criteria

General Wage Increase

CUNY employees represented by the Local Union No. 3 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who are in the eligible title of Electrician, Electrician’s Helper and Supervisor Electrician on or after the first effective date of the wage increases, 11/14/2013, are eligible for the retroactive rate increases.  

Lump Sum Cash Payment for Active Employees 

Employees who are active and have been continuously employed on the date of the payout shall be eligible to receive a lump sum cash payment. This lump sum payment represents a 4% collective bargaining increase stemming from the 2008 – 2010 round of bargaining.

The lump sum cash payments shall be paid on the following schedule:

Lump Sum Cash Payment for Retired or Deceased Employees

Employees who have retired from active service on or after 1/13/2015 will be paid on the same schedule as active employees.

Employees who retired after 5/10/2010 and before 1/13/2015, or eligible employees who deceased while in active service, shall receive a single lump sum payment pursuant to the “Structural Retirement Claims Settlement Fund” equivalent to the difference between the amount the employee earned and the amount he/she would have earned if there was a general wage increase of 4% on 5/11/2010 and an additional general increase of 4% on 5/11/2011.

Employees who are on active payroll in another Local 3 title (refer to Memorandum) or have retired from the Local 3 title, with no break in service, on the date of payment will be paid on the same schedule as active employees.

For purpose of lump sum payments, employees who were laid off and returned from a preferred list will be treated as “continuously employed.”

Note: It is the intent of the Agreement that Retirees and Actives continuously employed as of the dates of payout and up to and including the final payment date of 7/1/2020, after having received all the lump sum payments, shall have received a total amount of lump sum cash equal to the amount they would have received if they had received 4% increases on 5/11/2010 and 5/11/2011, compounded.

Agency Actions – Salary Increases

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 11/14/2013 Pay Change, followed by the 11/14/2014 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, using the next available sequence number.

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 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 in OSC’s Payroll Earnings mailbox by the submission deadline for Pay Period 8C.

The Earnings Code AJR must be reported as follows:

Agency Action – Lump Sum Cash Payment

Agencies must use the Time Entry code CBP – CUNY Bonus Payment to pay the Lump Sum Cash Payment to eligible Active and Retired employees who qualified for the benefit between 7/1/2015 and 7/1/2020.

The agency must provide OSC with the calculation of the lump sum payment on a worksheet for each eligible employee prior to processing the payment. The worksheet must be received in OSC’s Payroll Earnings mailbox by the submission deadline for the pay period in which the payment is to be processed, based on the payment schedule provided above.

The Earnings Code CBP must be reported as follows:

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.

Deduction Information

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

The CUNY Retroactive Rate Increase Adjustment (AJR) and the CUNY Bonus Payment (CBP) are supplemental taxable wages, will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and is subject to all employment taxes and income taxes.

Federal, State and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method. Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method (1.61135% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents).

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.