Purpose

To notify Unified Court System agencies of the April 2009 Salary and Location Pay Increases, to explain OSC’s automatic processing and to provide instructions for payments not processed automatically.

Affected Employees

Represented non-judicial employees in Bargaining Units SA, SR, SN, G9, F8, DR, SG, SK, SD, SY, S9 and 87 and unrepresented non-judicial employees in Bargaining Units CT, 86, and 88

Background

Chapter 276 of the Laws of 2008 implements agreements between the State of New York and various bargaining units in the Unified Court System and provides for General Salary and Location Pay Increases for non-judicial employees.

Effective Date(s)

4/2/09, Administration Pay Period 1L - Paychecks dated April 29, 2009

Contract Provisions and Eligibility Criteria

April 2009 General Salary Increase

The legislation provides for a 3% Salary Increase for hourly and salaried employees in graded and NS grade 560 positions unless the UCS Administrative Board determines part or all of the increase will be withheld from certain NS unrepresented employees.

• Effective 4/2/09.
• April 1, 2009 Salary Schedule.
• Annual employees receive a 3% Salary Increase, rounded to the next dollar or $1,000, whichever is greater.  (Employees must be Active or on an approved Leave on the incumbency date of 4/1/09 to be eligible for the $1,000 minimum.)
• Hourly employees receive a 3% Salary Increase, rounded to the next cent or $.55, whichever is greater. (Employees must be Active or on an approved Leave on the incumbency date of 4/1/09 or earlier to be eligible for the $.55 minimum.)

Salary Deferral

Chapter 276 of the Laws of 2008 calls for a salary deferral of any increases to salaries in excess of $115,000 for all employees until a law is passed to increase the salary of Supreme Court Justices to a rate greater than $136,700 or March 31, 2011, whichever comes first. Employees who hold a salary above $115,000 prior to the processing of the 2009 raise authorized by this law will retain their salary achieved prior to the raise processing. Employees whose salary is increased to greater than $115,000 by the raise processing will have their salary deferred to $115,000.

Location Pay Increases

Effective April 2, 2009, employees who currently receive Location Pay (LOC) and Courts Supplemental Location Pay (CLS) or Location Pay Mid-Hudson (LMH) and Courts Supplemental Location Pay Mid-Hudson (MHS) will have their respective payments combined under LOC or LMH as described below.

Employees in NYC, Rockland, Westchester, Nassau and Suffolk counties shall receive Location Pay (LOC) at a rate of:

• $3,555 effective April 2, 2009

Employees in Orange, Dutchess and Putnam counties shall receive Location Pay Mid Hudson (LMH) at a rate of:

• $1,777 effective April 2, 2009

The Location Pay for Monroe County remains at $200.

OSC Actions

OSC will automatically insert rows in the Job Data page to reflect the April 2009 3% or guaranteed minimum Salary Increases for all annual employees in represented and unrepresented bargaining units except for employees in Agency 05680 and as noted below.

These increases will be processed in the following manner for employees who meet the above eligibility criteria:

• Effective 4/2/09, for employees who have a status of Active, Paid Leave (except those on Military Stipend Leave), or Leave without Pay with a reason of WDL, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job record using the Action/Reason code of PAY/SAC (Pay Rate Change/Mass Salary Increase).
  • Employees who are on step will remain on step unless the employee receives the guaranteed minimum increase.
  • Step to step movement or the percentage increase will be applied to employees who do not meet the incumbency eligibility stated above.
• OSC will update all subsequent Job Data rows, provided the employee is in an eligible bargaining unit, using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary).
• For employees who are on a Leave of Absence without Pay (not on WDL) on 4/2/09, the increase will be applied to the employee’s Job Data record only if the employee is returned to the payroll in an eligible bargaining unit. Rows will be inserted as of the effective date of the Rein Leave using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary) with the new salary,
• Exception: The Salary Increase will not be applied to any Job row in which the employee is receiving less than the minimum salary rate on the April 1, 2008 Salary Schedule or if the information on the employee’s Job record is different from the information contained on the Position Data record, using the position information for the number stated in the NYS position field on the employee’s Job record.

Salary Deferral

OSC will insert a row with the Reason code CSD (Courts Salary Deferral) which will be used to identify PAY rows where an employee’s salary has been held at the current rate or reduced due to the Salary Deferral legislation. A CSD row will be inserted as follows:

• If an employee holds a salary of $115,000 or greater prior to 4/2/09, OSC will process the raise row, and insert a new row for the same date with the next available sequence number using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSD, and reduce the salary back to the salary achieved prior to the 4/2/09 raise effective date.  All subsequent rows will be updated accordingly.
• If the salary on an inserted row exceeds $115,000 as a result of the raise processing, OSC will insert a new row for the same date with the next sequence number using the Action/Reason code of PAY/CSD, and reduce the salary to $115,000.  All subsequent rows will be updated in the same manner.

Location Pay

OSC will automatically insert a row to increase eligible employees’ Location Pay (LOC) on the Additional Pay page to $3,555 for all rows effective 4/2/09 and later.

OSC will automatically end CLS earnings by inserting an end date of 4/1/09 in any existing rows.

Mid-Hudson Location Pay

OSC will automatically insert a row to increase eligible employees’ Location Pay Mid-Hudson (LMH) on the Additional Pay page to $1,777 for all rows effective 4/2/09 and later.

OSC will automatically end MHS earnings by inserting an end date of 4/1/09 in any existing rows.

Agency Actions

Salaried Employees

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

For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers with effective dates before 4/2/09:

• The agency must not include the Service Increment, Longevity Payment, or 3% Salary Increase in the Pay Rate field.
• The agency must report the increment code for April 2009.

For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers with effective dates on or after 4/2/09:

• For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers effective on 4/2/09, the agency must include any Service Increment , Longevity Increment and Salary Increase in the Pay Rate field. The increment code 5555 must be reported. OSC will not update these rows for the 3% salary increase.
• For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers effective after 4/2/09, the agency must include the Service Increment or Longevity Increment in the Pay Rate Field. The agency must report the projected increment code for April 2010. OSC will automatically update these rows for the 3% Salary Increase.

Note: For Pay Changes associated with Hire, Rehire, or Concurrent Hire actions submitted in Pay Period 1L, regardless of effective date, the agency must use the April 1, 2008 Salary Schedule, along with the appropriate increment code as described above. OSC will automatically update these rows for the 3% Salary Increase.

Hourly Employees

Agencies must submit the increases for all eligible hourly employees in Pay Period 1L.

Agency 05680

The agency must submit General Salary Increases for eligible employees in Agency 05680 in Pay Period 2C and submit the CSD transaction as appropriate by the payroll cutoff date.

NHRP709 Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

This Control-D report will be issued prior to the automatic processing. Agencies must review employees who appear on this report and reconcile the employee’s Job and/or Position information so that automatic processing can occur. If Job and Position are to remain mismatched, a Pay Change must be submitted to increase the employee’s salary.

Control-D Reports

The following Control-D report is available prior to processing of the automatic salary increases.

NHRP709 Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

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

• Salary Below Minimum
• Position and Job do not match

The following Control-D reports will be available after the processing of the automatic increases and the review of additional Job Request transactions have been completed:

NHRP703 Mass Additional Pay Report

This report identifies all employees receiving an automatic increase for Location Pay (LOC) or Location Pay Mid-Hudson (LMH). Fields on this report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Earn Code, Grade, Salary Plan, Bargaining Unit, Part-time Percentage and Additional Pay Amount.

NHRP704 Mass Salary Increase Report

This report identifies all employees who received the General Salary Increase. The report identifies the employee’s last salary that was automatically increased in an eligible bargaining unit. Other fields on the report include the EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Effdt, Eff Sequence, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Action Reason, Increment Code, and Old and New Comp Rate.

NHRP709 Mass Salary Increase Exception Report

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

• Salary Below Minimum
• Position and Job do not match

Questions

Questions about processing transactions may be directed to the Non-Executive Audit mailbox.