Purpose

To inform agencies of the eligibility of RRSU (DC 37) employees to receive the Workers’ Compensation Supplemental Pay Benefit effective 7/1/05 and to provide procedures for the payment of the Supplemental Pay Benefit.

Affected Employees

Employees in Bargaining Unit 67 who have a Workers’ Compensation accident occurring on or after 7/1/05

Effective Date(s)

July 1, 2005

Background

Pursuant to Chapter 9 of the Laws of 2005, an agreement between the State of New York and the Rent Regulation Service Unit (DC 37) provides for a Supplemental Pay Benefit payable to employees whose degree of disability as determined by the State Insurance Fund (SIF) is more than 50% and the statutory payment received from SIF is less than 60% of the employee’s normal gross wages.

Eligibility

Employees represented by RRSU (DC 37) who sustain a Workers’ Compensation injury on or after 7/1/05 may be eligible to receive a Supplemental Pay Benefit while on Workers’ Compensation Leave Without Pay, provided the statutory payment received from SIF is less than 60% of the employee’s normal gross wages.

For the purpose of determining the Supplemental Pay Benefit, the normal gross wage is defined as the sum of base annual salary, Location Pay, Geographic Differential, Shift Differential, and Inconvenience Pay the employee would otherwise receive if the employee were not on Workers’ Compensation Leave.

To be considered eligible for a Supplemental Pay Benefit, SIF must determine the employee is more than 50% disabled and the employee must be within the first cumulative 39 weeks of disability following the date of accident.

Additionally, if SIF determines the employee is less than 50% disabled, the agency is required to find the employee a position according to the Mandatory Alternate Duty Policy.

Agency Responsibility: Placing the Employee on Workers’ Compensation Leave

Under the Workers’ Compensation Law, an employee necessarily absent from work due to a Workers’ Compensation accident or disease is required to serve a seven (7) calendar day waiting period.

During the waiting period, an employee has the option of charging accrued Leave credits or immediately being placed on Leave Without Pay.

For employees who charge Leave credits, the agency must place the employee on Leave Without Pay after the expiration of the seven (7) calendar day waiting period or upon the exhaustion of leave credits, whichever occurs first.

If the Leave is reported late, the agency must charge the employee’s accruals, if available, and use the first day of the current pay period as the Leave date. This avoids an overpayment of salary. If the employee has no accruals to charge, the agency must use the latest date possible to remove the employee from the payroll. The resulting Overpayment will be recovered from the employee’s Supplemental Payments, if applicable, or upon the employee’s return to the payroll, whichever comes first.

For additional information regarding the charging of leave credits beyond the waiting period, the agency should refer to the Department of Civil Service Attendance and Leave Manual General Information Bulletin 93-03, page 2, Part II.

Before reporting the Leave of Absence, the agency must report the date of accident and the effective date of the Leave Without Pay on the Incident and Injury Details pages, respectively.

Reporting Information on the Incident and Injury Details Pages

Using the Monitor Workplace path (Monitor Workplace/Monitor Health/Safety (GBL)/Use/Incident Details), the agency must report the date of accident in the Incident Date field and must check either box labeled “accident” or “reoccurrence” on the Incident Details page. On the Injury Details page, the agency must enter the employee’s EmplID and in the Date Reported field, the effective date of the Leave Without Pay.

Placing the Employee on Leave Without Pay

After the Incident and Injury Details pages are completed, the agency must insert a new row on the employee’s Job Data page to place the employee on Workers’ Compensation Leave Without Pay, effective the date of the Leave Without Pay, using the Action/Reason of Leave Without Pay/ WPS (WC 60% Sup).

Note: It is essential that agencies report the appropriate Action/Reason code when employees are placed on Workers’ Compensation Leave Without Pay. The appropriate Action/Reason code ensures the employees receive the correct Workers’ Compensation benefits. To assist agencies in reporting the appropriate codes, OSC has added new on-line error messages that will be generated whenever the Action/Reason code selected is not appropriate for the information supplied on the Incident and Injury Details pages. A summary of all Action/Reason Codes to be used for RRSU (DC 37) employees who must be placed on Workers’ Compensation Leave Without Pay is listed later in this bulletin.

Maximum Workers’ Compensation Benefit

An employee receiving Workers’ Compensation benefits under this program shall be treated as though on the payroll for the length of the disability not to exceed twelve (12) cumulative months per injury for the sole purposes of accruing seniority, continuous service, etc., as defined in the RRSU (DC 37) Agreement. Therefore, if the employee has not returned to work after twelve (12) cumulative months of absence due to the same injury, the agency must remove the employee from LOA/WPS and report the appropriate Leave or removal Action/Reason codes.

WLA

For additional information regarding the Incident and Injury Details pages, the agency should refer to the Web-based Learning Assistant (WLA) procedure entitled “Processing a Workers’ Compensation Leave.”

Reporting the Reinstatement from Leave

When the employee returns to work, the agency must insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page to report the Return from Leave, effective the date the employee returned to work. The Action/Reason of Return from Leave/RPS (Rein WC 60% Sup) must be used.

To assist agencies with reporting reinstatements for the various Workers’ Compensation programs for RRSU (DC 37) employees, a summary of all Action/Reason Codes is listed later in this bulletin.

OSC Actions: Calculation of Supplemental Pay Benefits

SIF will notify OSC each pay period, via a file, of statutory payments paid to RRSU (DC 37) employees who are more than 50% disabled and are within the first cumulative 39 weeks of disability following the date of accident. OSC will review each employee appearing on the SIF file to determine if the employee is due a Supplemental Pay Benefit.

Calculation of Supplemental Pay Benefit

Employees will be due a Supplemental Pay Benefit if the employee’s normal biweekly gross wages (calculated using base annual salary and all additional salary factors) multiplied by 60% exceeds the SIF biweekly statutory award payment.

Total Normal Biweekly Gross Wages $1080.61 x .60 (60%) = $648.37

• In this example, if the SIF biweekly statutory award payment is less than $648.37, the employee is eligible for a Supplemental Pay Benefit for the difference between the SIF biweekly statutory payment and $648.37.
• Therefore, if the SIF biweekly statutory payment is $540.00, the biweekly Supplemental Pay Benefit would be calculated as follows:
  $ 648.37 (60% of employee’s normal biweekly gross wages)
  -540.00 (SIF biweekly statutory payment)
  108.37 Biweekly Supplemental Pay Benefit
• The Supplemental Pay Benefit will be processed for the number of disability days reported on the SIF file. If the number of days is other than ten (10), the biweekly Supplemental Pay Benefit will be prorated.
• In the above example, if this employee is due a Supplemental Pay Benefit for 3 days, the calculation would be done as follows: $108.37 (Biweekly Supplemental Pay Benefit) divided by 10
  = $ 10.84 Daily Supplemental Pay Benefit
  $ 10.84 (Daily Supplemental Pay Benefit) x 3 Days =     
  $32.52 Total Supplemental Pay Benefit

OSC Responsibility: Reporting Supplemental Information on the Workers’ Compensation Data Page

After OSC has calculated Supplemental Pay Benefits each pay period, the Supplemental Pay Benefit information for all employees including those for which a Supplemental Pay Benefit is not due will be recorded on the Workers’ Compensation Data page.

The Workers’ Compensation Data page is available for agency reference and provides the following Supplemental Pay Benefit information:

• Supplemental Payment (Check) Dates
• Supplemental Disability Dates
• Number of Disability Days
• State Insurance Fund Award
• Supplement Amount
• Wages Reported to ERS (This amount is based on the employee’s full normal gross wages, including additional salary factors, for the number of ERS service days being reported.)

Additional information regarding the Workers’ Compensation Data page can be found in Payroll Bulletin No. 271.

Summary of RRSU (DC 37) Action/Reason Combinations for Reporting Workers’ Compensation Transactions

Since there are three Workers’ Compensation programs that can be used for RRSU (DC 37) employees, the following information is provided to assist agencies with the reporting of Action/Reason combinations to be used for each program when placing the employee on Leave Without Pay and reinstating the employee from Leave Without Pay.

Deductions taken from the Supplemental Payments

In addition to taxes, Social Security and Medicare, all deductions previously deducted from the regular paycheck will be retained and deducted from the Supplemental Pay Benefit check provided the gross amount is sufficient to do so.

If the employee’s gross salary is insufficient to cover all deductions refer to Payroll Bulletin No. 559 for OSC’s current Deduction Priority Schedule.

Retirement Credit and Deduction

While an employee is covered under this benefit, the employee is entitled to full retirement service and salary credit, up to a maximum of one year per injury.

When an employee receives a Supplemental Pay Benefit, the amount reported as Retirement Salary for the Award (RSA) is also reported to the New York State Employees’ Retirement System as pensionable earnings. This amount appears on both the Workers’ Compensation Data page and on the employee’s paycheck stub. If the employee receives other pensionable earnings in the same paycheck, these amounts are also reported to the Employees’ Retirement System.

The RSA amount is also used to calculate retirement contributions for contributing members. If there are additional pensionable earnings, these amounts are also included in the calculation and the resulting deduction is reported to the Employees’ Retirement System.

Employees are entitled to receive full retirement service credit while on WPS. The number of days covered by the Supplement al Pay Benefit are included on the Workers’ Compensation Data page and are subsequently reported to the Employees’ Retirement System as service credit days.

Health Insurance

Questions regarding health insurance may be directed to your agency’s Employee Benefits Division.

Mandatory Alternate Duty

When the State Insurance Fund has determined that the employee is 50% disabled, the agency must offer the employee a position according to the Mandatory Alternate Duty provision. Additional information regarding the Mandatory Alternate Duty Policy can be found in the RRSU (DC 37) Agreement, Section 13.8.

Control-D Reports

Supplemental Pay Benefits will appear on the NHRP705, Workers’ Compensation Transaction Report. Included in the report are the disability dates, the amount of the SIF Award, and the Supplemental Pay Benefit amount.

Questions

Questions regarding the State Insurance Fund award may be directed to your agency’s SIF representative.

Questions regarding unavailability of Mandatory Alternate Duty assignments must be directed to the Governor’s Office for Employee Relations at (518) 473-7233.

Questions regarding retirement benefits may be directed to the ERS Information Office at (518) 474-7736.

Questions regarding the Supplemental Pay Benefits may be directed to the Payroll Audit mailbox.

Questions regarding deductions taken from the Workers’ Compensation Supplemental Pay Benefits may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.