Purpose

To provide instructions to agencies for processing stipend increases for Graduate Students in GSEU.

Affected Employees

SUNY employees represented by the Graduate Student Employees Union (Bargaining Unit 28) who meet the eligibility criteria

Effective Date(s)

Stipend increases may be paid in Pay Period 16L, paychecks dated 11/23/11

Background

Chapter 189 of the Laws of 2011 provides for 3% Stipend Increases effective 10/1/07 and 10/1/08 for eligible GSEU employees.

Contract Provisions and Eligibility Criteria

October 1, 2007 Stipend Increase

The legislation provides for a 3% stipend increase effective 10/4/07 for employees in Bargaining Unit 28. To be eligible for the stipend increase, an employee must be Active in Bargaining Unit 28 or matriculated at the same campus in which they had been employed on 9/30/07 and at the time of payment.

The increase is calculated based on the employee’s September 30, 2007 salary rate. The amount calculated will be rounded to the next whole dollar and then added to the salary in effect on 9/30/07.

For those eligible employees who are currently employed at University Center campuses, the minimum stipend for academic year 2007-2008 shall be $8,336.

October 1, 2008 Stipend Increase

The legislation provides for a 3% stipend increase effective 10/2/08 for employees in Bargaining Unit 28. To be eligible for the stipend increase, an employee must be Active in Bargaining Unit 28 or matriculated at the same campus in which they were employed on 9/30/08 and at the time of payment.

The increase is calculated based on the employee’s 9/30/08 salary rate. The amount calculated will be rounded to the next whole dollar and then added to the salary in effect on September 30, 2008.

For those eligible employees who are currently employed at University Center campuses, the minimum stipend for academic year 2008-2009 shall be $8,586.

Agency Actions

To process stipend increases for eligible employees, agencies must submit a Job Action Request transaction using the Action/Reason code Pay Rt Chg/SIC (Pay Rate Change/Salary Increase) effective the date of the increase.

For eligible employees who are currently employed at University Center campuses, agencies must make sure that stipends for all employees on full assistantships are at least equal to the minimum amounts as stated above.

Stipend increases must be rounded to the next whole dollar.

Agencies must submit Pay Rate Change transactions using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rt Chg/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary) to update any subsequent rows that appear on the employee’s Job Data record provided the employee remained in Bargaining Unit 28.

Prior to submission of the stipend increases, agencies must update the Approved Salary Rate on the Position Data page of employees receiving the increases if the new salary is greater than the Approved Salary Rate on the Position Data page.

Automatic Retroactive Processing

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive payments resulting from the stipend increases.

For eligible employees who have worked in more than one agency and have been paid by all agencies using the same Employee Record Number since the effective date of the increases, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency.

For eligible employees who have worked in more than one agency and have been paid from more than one Employee Record Number since the effective date of the increases, the retroactive adjustment for earnings in each Employee Record Number will be paid in the most current agency, under each Employee Record Number.

Retroactive Adjustments for Time Entry Earnings

Time Entry earnings codes that are calculated based on an employee’s salary such as lost time (LT6) will be automatically adjusted.

Agency Actions for Retroactive Processing

Time Entry earnings submitted with an amount will not be retroactively adjusted. Therefore, agencies must report the adjustments when the following earnings codes were used to report earnings on or after the effective dates of the stipend increases: ADJ, BSA, ES2, RGO, or LTO.

Additional Information and Procedures Regarding Retroactive Processing

• If a check was returned on an AC-230 (Report of Check Return for Refund or Exchange) for dates on or after the effective dates of the increases, the agency must review the retroactive adjustment for that employee, as the system does not always consider AC-230s when processing retroactive adjustments. Therefore, the agency may need to report an adjustment of earnings.
• If RGS was previously submitted using a date range that exceeded the number of days reported the system will calculate the adjustment of earnings based on the number of workdays within the range. Therefore, the agency must report an adjustment to reduce the automatic retroactive adjustment.

Agencies must use earnings code ADJ (Adjustment) on the Time Entry page to report retroactive changes due to the payment of the stipend increases.

Questions

Questions concerning these increases should be directed to SUNY System Administration.

Questions about this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Earnings mailbox.