Purpose

To explain OSC’s automatic processing and to provide instructions for payments not processed automatically.

Affected Employees

Eligible employees in Bargaining Unit 67

Effective Date(s)

4/3/08 - Paychecks dated 4/30/08, Pay Period 1L

Background

Chapter 9 of the Laws of 2005, Article 8, Section 131.6 of the Civil Service Law and the 2003-2007 bargaining agreement between the State of New York and the Rent Regulation Services Unit provide for the payment of Performance Advances and Longevity Payments to eligible Rent Regulation Services Unit employees.

Eligibility Criteria

Performance Advance Requirements

RRSU employees whose base annual salary is below the Job Rate for the employees current grade on the 4/1/07 Salary Schedule are eligible for a Performance Advance if the employee:

• has completed one (1) year of service in such  grade by April 1, 2008; and
• did not receive a Performance Advance in October 2007; and
• was rated “Satisfactory” or its equivalent on the employee's last annual evaluation date.

Longevity Payment Requirements

RRSU employees who complete five (5) or ten (10) years of continuous service as defined by Section 130.3(c) of the Civil Service Law at a base annual salary equal to or greater than the Job Rate for the employee’s grade may be eligible for a Longevity Payment. The payment is effective on the first day of the pay period following completion of the required service. For employees with an Increment Code of 2003 or 1998 who have had continuous paid service, the Longevity Payment is effective 4/3/08.

Unsatisfactory Ratings

Employees rated ”Unsatisfactory” during Fiscal Year 2007-2008 are not eligible to receive a Performance Advance or Longevity Payment. Agencies must submit a Job Action Request using the Action/Reason code of DTA/USP (Data Change/Unsatisfactory Performance) and enter Increment Code 0003 to withhold a Performance Advance or 7777 to withhold a Longevity Payment. The effective date should be the date of the employee’s rating. These transactions should be entered as soon as practicable following the employee’s evaluation date.

OSC Actions

After payroll processing is completed for Pay Period 1L, OSC will process Performance Advances and Longevity Payments for eligible employees who are Active, on a Paid Leave of Absence (except Sick Leave) or on Workers’ Compensation Leave on 4/3/08.

Performance Advance (Increment Code 0001 and Anniversary Date between 10/2 and 4/1):

OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page effective 4/3/08 to reflect the Performance Advance (not to exceed the Job Rate) using the Action/Reason code of PAY/PAV (Pay Rate Change/Performance Advance).

Promotion Recalculation (Increment Code 0004):

For employees who are entitled to a revised salary based on their FIS (Fixed Incremented Salary), OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page effective 4/3/08 to reflect the FIS amount displayed on the Job Data Compensation page as long as the FIS amount is greater than the compensation rate on Job Data, using the Action/Reason code of PAY/PMR (Pay Rate Change/Promotion Recalculation).

Longevity Payments (Increment Codes 2003 or 1998):

The following does not apply to employees in Bargaining Unit 67 with a salary grade equal to 018 who have an MST (Merit Step Payment) row on the Job Data page in the current grade and do not have an RMT (Rescind Merit Step) row in the same grade.

• OSC will automatically process Longevity Payments for graded employees with Increment Code 2003 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/3/08. Employees who are at the Job Rate will be brought to Longevity Step 1; employees above the Job Rate and below Longevity Step 1 will have the longevity amount added to the current salary (not to exceed Longevity Step 2).
• OSC will automatically process Longevity Payments for graded employees with Increment Code 1998 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/3/08. Employees whose salary is at or above the Job Rate and below Longevity Step 2 will be brought to Longevity Step 2.

The following applies only to employees in Bargaining Unit 67 with a salary grade equal to 018 who have an MST (Merit Step Payment) row on the Job Data page in the current grade and do not have an RMT (Rescind Merit Step) row in the same grade.

• OSC will automatically process Longevity Payments for graded employees with Increment Code 2003 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/3/08. Employees who are at the Merit Job Rate will be brought to Merit Longevity Step 1; employees above the Merit Job Rate and below Merit Longevity Step 1 will have the longevity amount added to the current salary (not to exceed Merit Longevity Step 2).
• OSC will automatically process Longevity Payments for graded employees with Increment Code 1998 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/3/08. Employees whose salary is at or above the Merit Job Rate and below Merit Longevity Step 2 will be brought to Merit Longevity Step 2.

Workers’ Compensation:

For employees who are receiving Workers’ Compensation under the RRSU Medical Evaluation Program, the supplement will be recalculated by OSC when processing payments for disability dates beginning 4/3/08 (Administration).

Transactions processed automatically will appear on the NHRP520, Daily Outbound Transaction file.

Automatic Update of Increment Codes

OSC will automatically update the increment codes, as appropriate, for employees in Pay Period 1L. Employees who receive Performance Advances or Promotion Recalculations will have their increment codes updated on the Performance Advance or Promotion Recalculation row. After the Performance Advances and Promotion Recalculations are processed in Pay Period 1L, OSC will automatically update increment codes of employees with Increment Code 0003 on the Job Data record using the Action/Reason code of DTA/CIC (Data Change/Correct Increment Code) effective 4/3/08.

Current Code	Updated to
0001	0001 if the new salary is below Job Rate 2008 if the new salary is equal to Job Rate
0003	0001 if anniversary date is 10/2/XX-4/1/XX and the new salary is equal to or greater than Hiring Rate and less than Job Rate
0004	0001 if anniversary date is 10/2/XX-4/1/XX and the new salary is below Job Rate 1001 if anniversary date is 4/2/XX-10/1/XX and the new salary is below Job Rate 2008 if the new salary is equal to or greater than Job Rate

Agency Actions Pay Period 1

The following procedures must be used by the agency when reporting transactions in Pay Period 1L:

For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date on or before 4/3/08:

• The agency must not include the Performance Advance or Longevity Payment in the salary rate reported in the Pay Rate field.
• The agency must report the proper increment code for April 2008.

For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date after 4/3/08:

• The agency must include, if applicable, the Performance Advance or Longevity Payment in the salary reported in the Pay Rate field.
• The agency must report the projected increment code for April 2009.

Employees who are on paid Sick Leave at the time of payment:

• Employees on paid Sick Leave will not receive payments automatically.
• The agency must enter a request on the Job Action Request page using the appropriate Action/Reason code of PAY/PAV (Pay Rate Change/Performance Advance) or PAY/PMR (Pay Rate Change/Promotion Recalculation) for employees who became eligible for the payments before being placed on paid Sick Leave.
• The agency must enter a request on the Job Action Request page using the appropriate Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/Longevity Pay) for employees who are eligible at the time of the payment.

Time Entry

To report miscellaneous earnings automatically calculated by the system (i.e. overtime), agencies must separate earnings by pay period so the earnings will not overlap the effective date of the Pay Change.

Agency Actions Pay Period 2

Beginning in Pay Period 2L, agencies that enter Rein Leave transactions on the Job Data page for eligible employees who return from a Leave of Absence without Pay (except Workers’ Compensation Leave) or a Paid Leave of Absence with a reason of Sick Leave or Military Stipend (MLS) must also submit a Job Action Request to pay Performance Advances, Promotion Recalculations or Longevity Payments, if applicable.

If the effective date of the Rein Leave is before Pay Period 1, the agency must enter the Rein Leave on the Job Data page and submit a Job Action Request using the appropriate Action/Reason code (PAY/PAV, PAY/PMR or PAY/LGP) effective 4/3/08.

If the effective date of the Rein Leave is after Pay Period 1, the agency must enter the Rein Leave on the Job Data page and submit a Job Action Request using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Cor Sal) and the effective date of the Rein Leave with the next effective sequence number.

Control-D Reports

The following report will be available after processing of Pay Period 25 (3/26/08-Administration) is completed. The report identifies employees who will not receive an automatic Performance Advance or Longevity Payment based on available information at the close of Pay Period 25. This will give agencies time to correct the employees’ records, if necessary, before automatic processing takes place.

NHRP708 Mass Increment Payment Exception Report

This report identifies employees who will not receive an automatic Performance Advance or Longevity Payment. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Salary, FIS Amount and Increment Code. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary will not be increased with one of the following messages:

Position and job do not match
FIS missing
FIS at or below current
FIS below hiring rate
Increment code missing
Increment code invalid
Inc code not in Anniv Date range

These messages are based on the employee’s current increment code:

Sal below hiring rate
Sal at or above job rate
Sal below job rate
Sal at or above longevity step 1
Sal at or above longevity step 2
Sal below merit job rate
Salary outside range

The following reports will be available for agency review after the automatic payments have been made. All reports will be sorted by agency code, then by employee name in alphabetical order.

NHRP704 Mass Salary Payment/Mass Increment Payment Report

This report identifies all employees who received the automatic Performance Advance or Longevity Payment and the employee’s increased salary. Other fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Action Reason and Increment Code.

NHRP708 Mass Increment Payment Exception Report

This report identifies employees who did not receive an automatic Performance Advance or Longevity Payment. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Salary, FIS Amount and Increment Code. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary was not increased with one of the following messages:

Position and job do not match
FIS missing
FIS at or below current
FIS below hiring rate
Increment code missing
Increment code invalid
Inc code not in Anniv Date range

These messages are based on the employee’s current increment code:

Sal below hiring rate
Sal at or above job rate
Sal below job rate
Sal at or above longevity step 1
Sal at or above longevity step 2
Sal below merit job rate
Salary outside range

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Audit mailbox.