Purpose

To provide agencies instructions for processing the rate increases, Ratification Bonus payments and adjustments for miscellaneous earnings.

Affected Employees

Annual and Hourly Blue and White Collar employees in IATSE Local One, Bargaining Unit TI. Affected titles are: Theatre Technician, Lead Theatre Technician and Theatre Technician Specialist.

Background

Pursuant to the 2011-2018 Memorandum of Agreement between The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Union, Local One (IATSE) and the City University of New York, and as summarized in the memorandum dated 5/31/2017 from Carmelo Batista Jr., retroactive pay increases effective 05/14/2013, 5/14/2014, 5/14/2015 and 5/14/2016 have been authorized. The Determination also provides for the payment of a Ratification Bonus Payment to eligible employees.

Effective Date(s)

The Retroactive General Salary Increases will be processed in Institution Pay Period 9C, paychecks dated 8/3/2017. The rates and effective dates for each salary increase are:

GENERAL SALARY INCREASE	EFFECTIVE DATE
1.0%	5/14/2013
1.0% compounded	5/14/2014
2.5% compounded	5/14/2015
0.5% compounded	5/14/2016

The Ratification Bonus Payment will be processed in Institution Pay Period 8C, paychecks dated 7/20/2017.

Eligibility Criteria 

General Wage Increases - All full and part-time employees meeting the below eligibility criteria on the respective effective dates may be eligible for the General Salary Increases:

• Is in Department 70XX0 or 70XX2; and
• Is in a BU TI, and
• Has a Pay Basis Code of ANN or HRY; and
• Has a Salary Grade of 600; and
• Has a Status of Active, Paid Leave, or Leave without Pay.

Ratification Bonus Payment for Full-Time Employees- Full-Time Employees meeting the above criteria who were in active pay status on the ratification date of 2/26/2017 are eligible for a $1,000 Ratification Bonus Payment.

Ratification Bonus Payment for Part-Time Employees- Part-Time employees meeting the above criteria who worked during any part of the period from 7/1/2015-6/30/2016 will receive a pro-rated amount based on the total hours worked during this period of time.

• If an hourly employee had more than one hourly assignment during the calculation period, hours worked in both assignments should be included in the calculation. However, the total payment should not exceed $1,000.
• If an hourly employee had another full-time assignment, the employee is only eligible to receive the Ratification Bonus payment under the full-time title if deemed eligible.

NOTE: Full-time and Hourly Local One represented employees at Hunter and Brooklyn Colleges inadvertently paid the Ratification Bonus payment during the Blue & White Collar processing in 2016 will not be entitled to another payment.

Agency Actions - Salary Increases

Reporting the Rate Increases

To ensure all Job Action requests are submitted for each employee, the agency must submit requests in effective date order from oldest date to current date. For example, if appropriate, submit the 5/14/13 Pay Change, followed by the 5/14/14 Pay Change.

The following Action/Reason codes must be used to report the increases.

For salaried employees:

• To report increases effective on each date of the general salary increases, the Action/Reason code of PAY/SIC must be used.
• To report increases on subsequent rows that are not one of the four general salary increase dates, the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL must be used.

For Hourly employees:

• To report increases effective on each date of the general salary increases, the Action/Reason code of PAY/SIC must be used.
• To report increases on subsequent rows that are not one of the five general salary increase dates, the Action/Reason code of PAY/CRT must be used.

Note: All employees are eligible for the new minimum salary or hourly rate, if the calculated salary or hourly rate is below the new minimum rate in effect.

Agency Actions - Ratification Bonus Payment

Agencies must use the Time Entry code RBP- Ratification Bonus Payment to pay the Ratification Bonus Payment to eligible full-time and part-time employees.

The Earnings Code RBP must be reported as follows:

Earnings Begin Date:	2/26/2017
Earnings End Date:	2/26/2017
Earnings Code:	Enter RBP
Amount:	Enter $1000, or pro-rated amount for hourly employees

(Refer to memorandum dated 5/31/2017 from Carmelo Batista Jr. for the calculation procedure for part-time employees.)

Agency Actions - Retroactive Processing Related to Salary Increase

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount, such as Adjustment (ADJ), Addl Job (AJB) or other override codes, will not be adjusted automatically. The agency must calculate and submit retroactive adjustments for all miscellaneous earnings that will not be adjusted automatically using Earnings Code AJR. Adjustments for nonresident aliens should be made using the Earnings Codes XAR, YAR, or ZAR.

AJR (XAR, YAR, or ZAR) may be paid in a single lump sum amount or broken down into raise periods (i.e. 5/14/YY – 5/13/YY). Detailed General Comments or a detailed worksheet must be available to OSC upon request. AJR (XAR, YAR, or ZAR) must be entered on the Time Entry page as follows:

Earn Code:	AJR (Adjust Raise)
Earns Begin Date:	Enter first date to be adjusted
Earns End Date:	Enter last date to be adjusted
Amount:	Enter the total adjustment amount (may be negative if recovering an overpayment)
Comments:	Enter an explanation of the adjustment

For earnings that will be automatically adjusted by the system, such as RGS, RGH or OTE, agencies must adjust the system-calculated retroactive adjustment whenever:

• the earnings were previously reported in Time Entry as a single entry; and
• the dates reported overlap the effective date of an increase.

In these cases, the system will adjust all earnings based on the salary rate in effect on the Earnings End Date, and an AJR(or nonresident alien code equivalent) must be entered to adjust the earnings correctly.

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.

An AJR will also need to be done if earnings were previously reported using Earnings Code RGS, and a date range that exceeded the number of days reported was used. The system will calculate the adjustment of earnings based on the number of workdays within the range.

• 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 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 7/20/2017 paycheck is confirmed, the employee must be notified of the overpayment and the adjustment that will be reported in a subsequent pay period.

Agency Actions - Overtime Earnings Adjustments related to RBP

For both annual and hourly employees, the value of the Ratification Bonus payment should be included in the calculation of the hourly overtime rate for FLSA.

Overtime earnings paid during the fiscal year 07/01/15 – 06/30/16 require manual adjustments to include the Ratification Bonus payment processed through Time Entry. The adjustment to the hourly rate is calculated by multiplying the payment amount by the overtime factor used for the original overtime earnings.

CUNY will submit the adjustment in Time Entry using the following code:

BOO – Bonus Overtime Hourly Override 

Submitting an Adjustment

To process a retroactive adjustment, agencies must submit the following information on Time Entry as indicated below:

Earnings Begin Date:	The first date included in the adjustment
Earnings End Date:	The last date included in the adjustment
Earnings Code:	BOO
Hours:	Number of hours paid
Amount:	Amount to be adjusted
Comments:	An explanation of the adjustment

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:

Code	Description
406	Strike/Discip Fine
409	CUNY Disciplinary Fine
425	Repay State Loans/Debt
426	Higher Ed Repay State Loan
445	HC Flexible Spending
580	CUNY Medicare Deficiency Flat Rate
581	CUNY Social Security Deficiency Flat Rate
582	CUNY SS/Medicare Deficiency
603	TIAA Before Tax Arrears
604	TIAA After Tax Arrears
GARNSH	Garnishments

Tax Information

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

Non Resident Alien employees receiving the CUNY Retroactive Rate Increase Adjustment (XAR, YAR, or ZAR) and have exceeded their treaty limit will be taxed using the Aggregate method. 

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).

Direct Deposit

If an employee has direct deposit and has not received a paycheck in three (3) pay periods or has only paycheck(s) valued at zero dollars ($0.00) in PayServ for the last three (3) pay periods, agencies must verify with the employee their direct deposit account is still active and take corrective action; or verify the employee's address in PayServ is current and disable the direct deposit by 7/21/17.

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 Taxation 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.

Questions

Questions regarding eligibility for IATSE Local One retroactive increases and Ratification Bonus Payment may be directed to the University Manager of Payroll Systems and Operations at CUNY Central Office.

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 may be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.