Purpose

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

Affected Employees

Eligible employees in Bargaining Unit 67

Background

Chapter 49 of the Laws of 2008, Article 8, Section 131.6 and 130.10 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.

Effective Date(s)

4/2/09 Administration - Paychecks dated 4/29/09, Pay Period 1L

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 April 1, 2009; and
• did not receive a Performance Advance in October 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) or ten (10) years of continuous service as defined by Section 130.3(c) of the Civil Service Law at an annual salary equal to or greater than the Job Rate of 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 2004 or 1999 who have had continuous paid service, the Longevity Payment is effective 4/2/09.

Unsatisfactory Ratings

Employees rated ”Unsatisfactory” during Fiscal Year 2008-2009 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, Promotion Recalculations and Longevity Payments for eligible graded employees who are Active, on a Paid Leave of Absence (except Sick Leave) or on Workers’ Compensation Leave on 4/2/09.

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 4/2/09 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 4/2/09 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 Codes 2004 or 1999):

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 2004 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/2/09. 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 1999 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/2/09. 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 2004 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/2/09. 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 1999 using the Action/Reason code of PAY/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Payment) effective 4/2/09. 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 4/2/09 (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, 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 1L, OSC will automatically insert a row and update the 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 4/2/09.

Agency Actions - Pay Period 1

The following procedures must be used by the agency when submitting transactions in Pay Period 1L: For transactions requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date on or before 4/2/09:

• The agency must not include the Performance Advance or Longevity Payment in the salary reported in the Pay Rate field.
• The agency must report the proper Increment Code for April 2009.

For transactions requested on the Job Action Request or Transfer Request page with an effective date after 4/2/09:

• 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 based on the employee’s next performance advance cycle.

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 placement 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 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 4/2/09.

If the effective date of the Rein Leave is on or after the first day of 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/Correct Salary) and the effective date of the Rein Leave with the next effective sequence number.

In addition, the agency must submit transactions for NS equated to grade employees who are due a Performance Advance, Promotion Recalculation or Longevity Payment using the appropriate Action/Reason code (PAY/PAV, PAY/PMR or PAY/LGP) with Pay Period 1 effective dates.

Control-D Report Available Prior to Processing

The following Control-D report will be available after processing of Pay Period 25 (3/26/09-Administration) is completed. 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 based on information available at the close of Pay Period 25. 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
• Sal below hiring rate
• 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 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). If the row(s) is corrected prior to Pay Period 1, 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 contains the same information as the position information in NYSTEP.

Control-D Reports Available After Processing

The following Control-D 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 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
• Sal below hiring rate
• 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 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 may be directed to the Salary Determination mailbox.