Purpose:

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of OSC’s automatic processing of the April 2021, April 2022, and April 2023 Senior Officer Series Differential Increases.

Affected Employees:

Eligible employees in the following bargaining units who meet the eligibility criteria are affected:

Background:

Chapter 1 of the Laws of 2023, which implemented the various agreements between the Unified Court System of the State of New York and the affected bargaining units (DR, F8, SY, 87) provides for an increase in Senior Officer Series Differential payments effective April 1, 2021, April 1, 2022, and April 1, 2023.

Effective Dates:

The April 2021, April 2022 and April 2023 Senior Officer Series Differential Increases will be paid using the following effective dates and check date:

Eligibility Criteria:

Employees with an active Additional Pay record with the following earnings code on or after 04/01/2021 while in an eligible Bargaining Unit are eligible to receive the April 2021, April 2022 and/or April 2023 Increases to Senior Officer Series Differential provided the employee has a Payroll Status of Active or Leave With Pay or Leave of Absence with Reason Code WDL on or after the payment effective date.

OSC Actions:

OSC will automatically insert a row for eligible employees on the Additional Pay page effective 04/01/2021, 03/31/2022 and/or 03/30/2023 if a row does not already exist with the effective date and update the Annual Addl Earnings amount for the Senior Officer Series Differential with the April 2021, April 2022, and April 2023 rate. If a row with an effective date equal to or greater than 04/01/2021, 03/31/2022 or 03/30/2023 already exists, OSC will update the row with the appropriate amount.

Automatic Retroactive Processing

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system that include Senior Officer Series Differential (Earnings Code SOS) such as Overtime (Earnings Code OTD).

If an employee receives a payment and has worked in more than one agency but has been paid by all agencies 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 worked in more than one agency 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 Actions

Agencies must submit adjustments to SOS earnings for any mid-pay period adjustments effective 04/01/2021 or later, using Earnings Code AOD (Adj Sr Off Series Diff-OCA). The current pay period Begin Date must be used for all AOD transactions.

Agencies must review SOS overpayments recovered by an overpayment earnings code Q21, Q22 or Q23 and take appropriate action to adjust the overpayment.

Agency Actions - Retroactive Processing

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, beginning in Pay Period 3L, agencies must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as Overtime Override (Earnings Code OTO).

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 for CUNY/UCS 35 hr (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

When an adjustment is needed for COVID-19 overtime such as CVO, ARC must be used. When an adjustment is needed for non-COVID-19 related overtime or recall such as OTT, ARO must be entered. Please refer to Payroll Bulletin 1893 for more information. Agencies must continue to use AJR for all other override Time Entry Earnings Codes requiring a manual adjustment that are a result of a retro salary increase.

To process a retroactive adjustment or correct an automatic retroactive adjustment, agencies must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using the Earnings Code AJR, ARC or ARO:

Control-D Reports Available After Processing:

The following Control-D report will be available after processing of the automatic increase:

NHRP703 Mass Salary Additional Pay Report

This report identifies all employees whose SOS (Senior Officer Series Differential) earnings were updated. The report will be sorted by DeptID and then by employee name, in alphabetical order. Fields on this report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Earn Code, Grade, Salary Plan, Bargaining Unit, and Additional Pay Amount.

General Deductions

All general deductions for employees whose Payroll Status is Terminated, Retired, or Deceased will be automatically canceled by OSC with the exception of percentage-based dues and the following:

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, ARC, ARO, and Retro (RXX)) are supplemental taxable wages, will be included in the employee’s taxable gross and are 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. Yonkers Flat Rate Withholding is 1.95975% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents.

Special Wage Payments for Individuals Who Filed for Retirement Social Security Benefits

Per Internal Revenue Service Publication 957, OSC will be reporting retro payments made to individuals who have filed for Social Security benefits to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

As PayServ does not include this information, OSC will be mailing a Request for Special Wage Payment Report to inactive individuals who are 62 or older in the calendar year and to active employees with the New York Retiree Indicator checked in Modify a Person who receive the retroactive payment. Recipients of this mailing will be asked to fill out the request and return it to OSC for inclusion on the Special Wage Payment report to SSA.

This report will be submitted to SSA after the close of the 2023 tax year. It is important that agencies ensure the New York Retiree Indicator box is checked for rehired retirees. Please see Payroll Bulletin No. 1728 for further details on the New York Retiree Indicator box.

Undeliverable Checks

When a valid payroll check is undeliverable due to the agency’s inability to locate the employee, the agency should follow the Agency Actions identified in Payroll Bulletin No. 1786 - Non-Negotiated and/or Undeliverable New York State Payroll Checks.

Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P), original death certificate 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 LQ_PCD_PAYCHECK_EARNINGS_BY_ID 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.

Questions regarding general deductions may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.