Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to explain the agency procedures for reporting rate increases and adjustments for “Miscellaneous Earnings".

Affected Employees

CUNY employees in the title Auto Mechanic (CUNY) are affected.

Background

Rate increases are pursuant to the New York City Comptroller’s Consent Determination dated February 27, 2020.

The revised rate chart and additional information are contained in a memorandum from University Executive Director of Classified Staff Labor Relations, Carmelo Batista, dated March 13, 2020.

Effective Date(s)

Increases may be manually submitted in Institution Pay Period 4C with a paycheck date of 5/21/2020. Rate increases will be effective October 1, 2017, October 1, 2018, and November 1, 2019.

Eligibility Criteria

General Wage Increase

CUNY employees represented by Service Employees International Union, Local 246, who are in the eligible title of Auto Mechanic on or after the first effective date of the wage increases, October 1, 2017, are eligible for the retroactive rate increases.

OSC Actions

OSC will review the manually entered Job Action Requests and approve salary increases based on the approved salary chart.

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.

Any Auto Mechanics (CUNY) hired before August 1, 2006 will be paid at the new salary rates.

Any Auto Mechanics (CUNY) hired on or after August 1, 2006 will be paid a suppressed salary rate for three (3) years.

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 must be used to report the combined retroactive adjustment for all miscellaneous 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 Audit Section by the agency deadline for Pay Period 5C.

The Earnings Code AJR must be reported as follows:

Agency Actions - Earnings

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”.

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. The monies will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and will be reported on the employee’s Form W-2.

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:

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

When a valid payroll check is undeliverable due to the agency’s inability to locate the employee, the agency should follow the Agency Actions identified in Payroll Bulletin No. 1786 Non-Negotiated and/or Undeliverable New York State Payroll Checks. 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 eligibility for CUNY Skilled Trades Auto Mechanic retro raise increases may be directed to the University Manager of Payroll Systems and Operations at CUNY Central Office.

Questions regarding transactions 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.