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)

10/2/08 Administration - Paychecks dated 10/29/08, Pay Period 14L

Background

Chapter 49 of the Laws of 2008, Article 8, Section 131.6 and 130.3 of the Civil Service Law, and the 2007-2011 negotiated 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 RRSU employees.

Contract Provisions and Eligibility Criteria

Performance Advance Requirements

RRSU employees whose annual salary is below the Job Rate of the employee’s current grade on the 4/1/08 Salary Schedule are eligible for a Performance Advance if the employee:

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

Longevity Payment Requirements

RRSU employees who complete five (5) 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 from the first day of the pay period following completion of the required service. For employees with an Increment Code of 0310 who have had continuous paid service, the Longevity Payment is effective 10/2/08.

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 1003 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 14L, OSC will process Performance Advances, Promotion Recalculations and Longevity Payments for eligible RRSU employees who are Active, on a Paid Leave of Absence (except Sick Leave) or on Workers’ Compensation Leave on 10/2/08.

Performance Advance (Increment Code 1001 and Anniversary Date between 4/2 and 10/1):

OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page effective 10/2/08 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 1004):

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 10/2/08 to reflect the FIS amount displayed on the Job Data Compensation page using the Action/Reason code of PAY/PMR (Pay Rate Change/Promotion Recalculation). In addition, the FIS amount:

• must be equal to or greater than the Hiring Rate.
• must be greater than the employee’s current salary.
• can exceed the Job Rate of the employee’s current grade.

Longevity Payments (Increment Code 0310):

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 employees with Increment Code 0310 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 10/2/08.  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 $1,050 added to the current salary (not to exceed 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 employees with Increment Code 0310 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 10/2/08. 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 $1,050 added to the current salary (not to exceed 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 10/2/08.

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, on the inserted rows for employees who receive a Performance Advance or Promotion Recalculation. After the Performance Advances and Promotion Recalculations are processed in Pay Period 14L, OSC will automatically insert a row and update the increment codes of employees with Increment Code 1003 on the Job Data record using the Action/Reason code of DTA/CIC (Data Change/Correct Increment Code) effective 10/2/08.

Current Code	Update to
1001	1001 if the new salary is below Job Rate 0810 if the new salary is equal to Job Rate
1003	1001 if the current salary is equal to or greater than Hiring Rate but below Job Rate and the Anniversary Date is 4/2/XX -10/1/XX
1004	1001 if the new salary is below Job Rate and the Anniversary Date is 4/2/XX -10/1/XX 0001 if the new salary is below Job Rate and the Anniversary Date is 10/2/XX -4/1/XX 0810 if the new salary is equal to or greater than Job Rate
0310	0310 will remain the same

Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing

The following Control-D report will be available on October 2, 2008 for agency reviewprior to the processing of Performance Advances, Promotion Recalculations and Longevity Payments. This will give agencies time to correct employees’ records, if necessary, before the automatic processing takes place.

NHRP708 Mass Increment Payment Exception Report

This report identifies employees who will not receive an automatic Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation 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

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

• Increment code missing
• Increment code invalid
• Inc code not in Anniv Date range
• 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

If an employee appears on this report but is due a Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation or Longevity Payment, the agency must:

• Submit the necessary corrections on the Job Action Request page to correct the data on the incorrect Job row(s) using the appropriate Action/Reason code(s). After the row(s) is corrected, the automatic Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation or Longevity Payment will be applied.
• Submit a position change request to the Position Management Unit if the data on the Position Data page is incorrect in PayServ but is correct in NYSTEP. The position will be updated to reflect the change and the automatic Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation or Longevity Payment will be applied provided the agency’s position request is the same as the position information in NYSTEP.

Agency Actions - Pay Period 14

The following procedures must be used by the agency when reporting transactions in Pay Period 14L:

For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date on or before 10/2/08:

• 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 October 2008.

For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date after 10/2/08:

• 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 October 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 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 that are 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.

Control-D Reports Available After Processing

The following Control-D reports will be available on October 20, 2008 for agency review after the automatic Performance Advances, Promotion Recalculations and Longevity Payments are processed. All reports will be sorted by agency code, then by employee name in alphabetical order.

NHRP704 Mass Increment Payment Report

This report identifies all employees who received the automatic Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation or Longevity Payment. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Effective Date, Effective Sequence, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Action Reason, Old Comprate, New Comprate and Increment Code.

NHRP708 Mass Increment Payment Exception Report

This report identifies employees who did not receive an automatic Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation 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

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

• Increment code missing
• Increment code invalid
• Inc code not in Anniv Date range
• 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

Agency Actions - Pay Period 15

Beginning in Pay Period 15L, 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 14, 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 10/2/08.

If the effective date of the Rein Leave is after Pay Period 14, 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/Correct Salary) and the effective date of the Rein Leave with the next effective sequence number.

Questions

Questions about this Bulletin may be emailed to the Salary Determination mailbox.