Purpose
To provide agencies with instructions for submitting the Courts Buyout Incentive Payment.
Affected Employees
Selected full and part-time annual UCS employees
Effective Date(s)
The Courts Buyout Incentive Payment will be made in separate checks dated October 14, 2009 and January 6, 2010
Background
In an effort to achieve cash savings in Fiscal Year 2009-10, the New York State Unified Court System has offered a one-time $20,000 separation payment to selected employees. Employees have been given the option of either one lump sum payment of $20,000 or a portion thereof in calendar year 2009 or the employee may elect to receive two (2) equal payments in the 2009 and 2010 calendar years.
The Courts Buyout Incentive Payment is not pensionable and is not included in the calculation of overtime.
There will be no direct deposit for this payment.
Eligibility
Selected employees who accept the offer of a separation payment must leave service no later than close of business September 2, 2009.
The $20,000 separation payment will be prorated for selected employees who worked less than full-time at the time of the offer.
Hourly employees and employees who are currently collecting a pension from the New York State Retirement System are not eligible for a separation payment.
Employees who accept a separation payment cannot be re-employed in any position with the Unified Court System for five (5) years.
OSC Actions
OSC has created two (2) new action/reason codes to be used on the Job Data page effective 7/9/09 or later upon the employee’s separation from service.
Retirement/CBI – Court Buyout Incentive
Termination/CBI – Court Buyout Incentive
OSC has created the new Time Entry Earns Code CBI (Courts Buyout Incentive) to be used to make the payments effective 7/9/09.
This code will be available for use on September 22, 2009.
Agency Actions
Beginning on 8/3/09, agencies must use the new action/reason codes listed above to report the separation of eligible employees on Job Data.
Agencies must enter the following information on the Time Entry page to pay the Courts Buyout Incentive Payment:
| Earn Code: | CBI |
| Earnings Begin Date: | Enter the date of the day before the date of Termination or Retirement. |
| Earnings End Date: | Enter the same date as the Earnings Begin Date. |
| Amount: | $20,000, $10,000 or prorated amount as applicable. |
Overpayment Recovery
For any employee who, at the time of payment, has an Overpayment set up in Additional Pay that has a Goal Amount and Goal Balance that are not equal, the system will recover as much of the Overpayment as possible.
Deduction Information
If an employee has an additional tax amount in his/her record, the additional tax will be deducted from this separate check.
Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice
The Earn Code CBI, description and amount will be displayed on the payroll register and the employee’s paycheck stub.
Questions
Questions about processing transactions may be directed to the Non Executive Audit mailbox.