Purpose
To inform agencies of OSC’s automatic processing of the October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 and April 2017 Salary Increases for Bargaining Unit DR, and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically.
Affected Employees
Employees in the following bargaining units who meet the eligibility criteria:
| Court Officers Benevolent Association of Nassau County | Bargaining Unit DR |
Background
The 2011-2019 Agreement between the State of New York Unified Court System (UCS) and the Court Officers Benevolent Association of Nassau County (COBANC) provides for a salary increase of two percent (2.00%) or $1,000 effective October 1, 2014, two percent (2.00%) or $1,000 effective April 1, 2015, two percent (2.00%) or $1,000 effective April 1, 2016 and two percent (2.00%) or $1,000 effective April 1, 2017 for all eligible represented non-judicial employees in Bargaining Unit DR.
The Agreements also include the October 1, 2014, April 1, 2015, April 1, 2016 and April 1, 2017 Salary Schedules.
Chapter 98 of the Laws of 2017, in conjunction with Chapter 400 of the Laws of 2014, authorizes the October 1, 2014, April 1, 2015, April 1, 2016 and April 1, 2017 retroactive salary increases.
Effective Date(s)
The October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 and April 2017 Salary Increases will be paid using the following effective dates and check date:
| Year | Pay Cycle/Pay Period Type | Payment Effective Date | Check Date |
| 2014 | Administration 10 Lag | 09/25/14 | 09/06/17 |
| 2015 | Administration 10 Lag | 03/26/15 | 09/06/17 |
| 2016 | Administration 10 Lag | 04/07/16 | 09/06/17 |
| 2017 | Administration 10 Lag | 04/06/17 | 09/06/17 |
Eligibility Criteria
The following employees are eligible to receive the October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 and/or April 2017 Salary Increases.
- Employees with a Pay Basis Code of ANN who are in an NS position (Grade 560)
- Employees with a Pay Basis Code of ANN who are in a graded position (Grade 501-538)
Incumbency Criteria
2014: Employees who are Active or on an approved leave of absence, and in Bargaining Unit F8, G9, DR, SA, SD, SG, SK or SN, on 09/24/2014 are considered incumbents and are eligible for the October 2014 two percent (2.00%) salary increase or $1,000, whichever is greater. If the employee does not meet the incumbency criteria, the employee will be eligible for a two percent (2.00%) salary increase only.
2015: Employees who are Active or on an approved leave of absence, and in Bargaining Unit F8, G9, DR, SA, SD, SG, SK or SN, on 03/31/2015 are considered incumbents and are eligible for the April 2015 two percent (2.00%) salary increase or $1,000, whichever is greater. If the employee does not meet the incumbency criteria, the employee will be eligible for a two percent (2.00%) salary increase only.
2016: Employees who are Active or on an approved leave of absence, and in Bargaining Unit F8, G9, DR, SA, SD, SG, SK or SN, on 03/31/2016 are considered incumbents and are eligible for the April 2016 two percent (2.00%) salary increase or $1,000, whichever is greater. If the employee does not meet the incumbency criteria, the employee will be eligible for a two percent (2.00%) salary increase only.
2017: Employees who are active or on an approved leave of absence, and in Bargaining Unit F8, G9, DR, SA, SD, SG, SK or SN, on 03/31/2017 are considered incumbents and are eligible for the April 2017 two percent (2.00%) salary increase or $1,000, whichever is greater. If the employee does not meet the incumbency criteria, the employee will be eligible for a two percent (2.00%) salary increase only.
Note: Bargaining Units F8, G9, SA, SD, SG, SK and SN are considered for incumbency purposes only. If the employee is in one of these Bargaining Units on the raise effective date, the Bargaining Unit DR raise will not be applied to that Job Data row. The Bargaining Unit DR retroactive raise will only be applied to Job Data rows where the Bargaining Unit on the Job Data record is DR.
Reports Available Prior to Processing
OSC will send a file identifying all employees who appear eligible for a Bargaining Unit DR retroactive salary increase. UCS will compare this file to an agency-generated file to be sure all employees are identified.
Salary Administration Plan Update
Prior to implementation of the 2011-2016 collective bargaining unit agreements, all of the bargaining units in the Unified Court System were processed using the same salary schedule and as a result, were linked to one Salary Administration Plan (UCS – Unified Court System).
Since the 2011-2016 Agreements contained new October 1, 2014 and April 1, 2015 salary schedules, Salary Administration Plan NUC (NYS Unified Court System) was created and linked to the new salary schedules. All of the bargaining units collectively under Salary Administration Plan NUC (BU’s F8, G9, SA, SD, SG, SK, SN) have signed subsequent agreements that contain new April 1, 2016 and April 1, 2017 salary schedules.
Therefore, prior to processing the October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 and April 2017 Salary Increases for Bargaining Unit DR, OSC will automatically update the Salary Administration Plan for Bargaining Unit DR to NUC on the Position Data page and Job Data page as follows:
Position Data Page
The Salary Administration Plan will be updated to NUC (NYS Unified Court System) on all positions in effect on or after the Effective Date of the October 2014 Salary Increase with a Bargaining Unit equal to DR and a Status of Active. If a row does not currently exist with the Effective Date, a new row will be inserted with the following information; otherwise the Salary Administration Plan will be updated on the existing row. In addition, the Salary Administration Plan will be updated on all subsequent rows meeting the criteria.
| Effective Date: | 09/25/14 |
| Reason: | Z11 (Update of Position Data) |
| Salary Admin Plan: | NUC (NYS Unified Court System) |
Job Data Page
The Salary Administration Plan will be updated to NUC (NYS Unified Court System) for all employees with a Bargaining Unit equal to DR and a Payroll Status of Active (A), Leave with Pay (P) or Leave of Absence (L) on the effective date of the October 2014 Salary Increase. A new row will be inserted with the following information; if a row does not currently exist with the Effective Date, a new row will be inserted with Sequence 0; otherwise the new row will be sequence one greater than the row already existing in the employee’s job history. In addition, the Salary Administration Plan will be updated on all subsequent rows meeting the criteria regardless of the employee’s Payroll Status.
| Effective Date: | 09/25/14 |
| Action: | Position Change |
| Reason: | Z11 (Update of Position Data) |
| Salary Administration Plan: | NUC (NYS Unified Court System |
Agency Actions
The Office of Court Administration will submit to OSC a file containing all job history rows for all employees eligible for any retroactive Bargaining Unit DR salary increase. This file at minimum requires Employee ID, Employee Record Number, and NYS Job Code (from the Position Data panel), along with the new salary for each eligible raise effective dated row and each subsequent job row in history.
Inserting Rows on the File
UCS must review each employee to determine eligibility for a salary increase. If the employee is eligible for one or more Bargaining Unit DR salary increase, rows must be inserted on the file to apply the raise on the applicable raise effective dates and all subsequently affected rows.
For inserted rows, UCS must populate the following fields:
- Employee ID
- Empl Record Number
- Job Code
- Effective Date
- Sequence Number
- Comp Rate – the end result of all applied salary increases for which the employee is eligible
- New Action Code - PAY
- New Action Reason Code
- Reason Code SAC – if the effective date of the row is equal to the effective date of the October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 or April 2017 salary increase
- Reason Code CSL – if the effective date of the row is not equal to the effective date of the October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 or April 2017 salary increase.
If the employee is not eligible for a salary increase on the payment effective date or on a subsequent row, no row should be inserted on the file.
If a raise-eligible employee in Bargaining Unit DR subsequently transfers into another bargaining after the effective date of the raise, UCS must calculate the employee’s new salary on these rows. OSC will make any necessary corrections on the employee’s Job Data record.
No other changes may be made on the file. If it is discovered that any corrections besides those directly related to the salary increases are necessary, UCS must request these corrections through PayServ. The salary increase file is only to be used to process the salary increases on the applicable raise effective dates and to update the salaries of affected employees’ job histories as necessary.
The final file must be returned to OSC no later than 08/15/2017 in order to be processed for the paycheck date 09/06/2017.
Updating Subsequent Job Data Rows After the Final File is Sent to OSC
UCS will provide a list of transactions for Pay Period 10L (Administration) with the correct salaries to apply.
OSC Actions
OSC will upload the final file into PayServ on 08/25/2017, after all raise processing for Bargaining Units F8, G9, SA, SD, SG, SK and SN is complete.
Only new rows inserted by UCS onto the file will be loaded into PayServ. If the effective dated row on the file already exists on Job Data, the inserted row will be sequenced one greater than the highest sequenced row previously existing in Job Data. If the effective dated row does not exist in Job Data, the inserted row will be Sequence 0.
OSC will review all rows for employees who received a retroactive raise in Bargaining Unit DR and subsequently transferred to a bargaining unit other than DR. If the new bargaining unit is F8, G9, SA, SD, SG, SK or SN, OSC will compare the salary calculated on the uploaded file to the salaries entered by the automatic processing programs, and make any necessary corrections.
Control-D and Other Report Available After Processing
Rejected Upload Rows
If any new rows provided by UCS on the final file are rejected by the upload program, a list of the rejected rows will be sent to UCS for review.
The following Control-D report will be available for agency review after the automatic increases have been processed. All reports are sorted by Department ID, then by employee name in alphabetical order.
NHRP704 – Mass Salary Increase Report
This report identifies all employees who received the automatic April 2016 and/or April 2017 Salary Increases. The report identifies all employee’s salaries that were increased in an eligible bargaining unit.
Automatic Retroactive Processing
OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for regular earnings and Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system based on annual salary, such as OT at 1.5 (OTD) and Holiday Pay (HPA), resulting from payment of the October 2014, April 2015, April 2016 and April 2017 Salary Increases for employees in Bargaining Unit DR.
If an employee receives a payment and has been paid in the same Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency.
If an employee receives a payment and has been paid in more than one Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, the retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency of the Employee Record Number in which the payment was made.
Agency Action – Retroactive Processing
Reporting Retroactive Adjustments
Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, beginning in Administration Pay Period 11L, the agency must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as OT Override (OTO) and Regular Salary Override (RGO).
Correcting an Automatic Retroactive Adjustment
When certain conditions exist in an employee’s record, the automatic retroactive adjustment may be incorrect. Therefore, the agency is responsible for identifying employees who meet the following conditions and, if necessary, submitting the necessary adjustment.
- If an employee has a check returned or exchanged on an AC-230 for dates on or after the effective date of the payment, the payroll system does not consider the AC-230 when calculating the automatic retroactive adjustment.
- If earnings were previously reported using Earnings Code RGS and 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.
- Adjustments for earnings that are calculated automatically, such as OT at 1.5 (OTD), will be calculated incorrectly if the dates previously reported as a single entry on the Time Entry page overlap the effective date of the payment. The system will calculate an adjustment for all earnings reported in a single entry based on the salary in effect on the Earnings End Date.
- For employees who had a change reported on the Job Data page since the effective date of the payment and the action resulted in an overpayment of earnings, the automatic negative retroactive adjustment may not have been processed because the overpayment was either not recoverable or was recovered using an overpayment earnings code or an AC-230. In this case, the negative retroactive adjustment may be re-generated when the payment is processed. OSC will turn off (not process) the automatic negative adjustment for these employees since in most cases these overpayments were either not recoverable or recovered using another method.
If an overpayment of earnings is identified after the automatic payment is processed but before the paycheck is received by the employee, the employee must be notified of the overpayment and the adjustment that will be reported in a subsequent pay period.
Submitting an Adjustment
To process a retroactive adjustment or correct an automatic retroactive adjustment, the agency must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using the Earnings Code AJR.
| Earnings Begin Date: | The first date included in the adjustment |
| Earnings End Date: | The last date included in the adjustment |
| Earn Code: | AJR |
| Amount: | Amount to be adjusted |
| Comments: | An explanation of the adjustment |
Military Leave Stipend
OSC will recalculate the military stipend amount for employees who were placed on a Paid or Unpaid Military Stipend Leave on or after the effective date of the payment as the result of new military orders.
- If the employee received a stipend, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page effective the date the employee is entitled to the increase using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/MSC (Military Stipend Change) and will increase the employee’s biweekly stipend amount. In addition, updates will be made to all subsequent rows requiring an increased biweekly stipend amount.
- If the employee did not receive a stipend but becomes eligible for a stipend as a result of the payment, OSC will insert the following in PayServ.
- A row on the employee’s Job Data page effective the date the employee is entitled to a stipend using the Action/Reason code of Paid Leave of Absence/MLS (Mil Stip) and the new biweekly stipend amount.
- A row on the employee’s Job Data page for each affected subsequent row using the Action/Reason code of Pay Rate Change/MSC (Military Stipend Change) and the new biweekly stipend amount.
- A row on the Time Entry page using the Earnings Code MSP (Military Stipend Payment) to pay the stipend for each pay period the employee is eligible.
- Any additional adjustment that is required due to the increased biweekly stipend amount that will not be calculated automatically will be reported by OSC on the Time Entry page using the Earnings Code AMS (Adjust Military Stipend).
Deduction Information
All general deductions for employees whose Payroll Status is Terminated, Retired or Deceased will be automatically cancelled by OSC with the exception of percentage based dues and agency shop fees and the following:
| Code | Description |
| 410 | Health Care Spending Account |
| 420 | NY Dependent Care Contribution |
| 425 | Repay State Loans/Debt |
| 426 | Higher Ed Repay State Loan |
| 428 | Dependent Care |
| 433 | Total Unemployment Ins Owed |
| 500 | Medicare Deficiency |
| 501 | Social Security Deficiency |
| 502 | NYS SS/Medicare Deficiency |
| GARNSH | Garnishments |
| HIATRG< | Regular After Tax Health |
| HIATSP | Special After Tax Health Adj |
| HIBTRG | Regular Before Tax Health |
| HIBTSP | Special Before Tax Health Adj |
Tax Information
These monies are taxable income and are subject to all employment taxes and income taxes. These monies will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and will be reported on the employee’s Form W-2.
The adjustments (AJR and Retro (RXX)) are supplemental taxable income and will be included in the employee’s taxable gross subject to all employment and income taxes.
Federal, State and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method. Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method (1.61135% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents).
Undeliverable Checks
If the agency has made an effort to deliver the check to the employee but the check has been returned and is undeliverable, the agency should forward the check to the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, Division of Treasury, per instructions in Payroll Bulletin No. 908.
Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P) and a Report of Check Exchange (Form AC 1476-P). If a Next of Kin Affidavit has been previously submitted for a deceased employee’s payroll check, OSC will accept a photocopy of this form along with a new Report of Check Exchange.
Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice
All retroactive adjustments will be displayed on the Payroll Register using the appropriate Earnings Code and the amount paid and will be displayed on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice using the appropriate Earnings Description and the amount paid unless the number of earnings codes exceeds 13. Agencies should utilize Locked Query #49 to identify a complete list of regular earnings and retroactive adjustments if there are more than 13 earnings codes.
Questions
Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Earnings mailbox.