Purpose

To notify agencies of two new Increment Codes to be reported for tracking employees eligible for a future Pay Change associated with Judiciary Law, Sections 37.3 and 37.9 and two new Reason Codes to be used when reporting the Pay Change associated with previously reported appointing transactions as explained above.

Effective Date(s)

The new Reason and Increment Codes are available immediately and may be used to report instances occurring 3/27/03 and after. OSC will review the need for historical rows with the Office of Court Administration.

Background

Due to a change in Judiciary Law, Section 37.3, new Reason and Increment Codes have been created to track employees who are eligible for 2nd Longevity Step. New Reason and Increment Codes have been created to track employees that are eligible for a promotion recalculation based on Section 37.9.

Agency Actions - New Increment Codes

Judiciary Law 37.3 – Upon appointment or promotion to a higher grade where the promotional salary is greater than or equal to 1st Longevity and less than 2nd Longevity, the Increment Code of 05YR must be used and the FIS (Fixed Incremented Salary) Amount field is left blank. YR is the two-digit year in which the employee is eligible to receive the Pay Change to 2nd Longevity.

Note: In the case of a salary reconstruction where the reconstructed salary falls between 1st and 2nd Long, the eligibility for the longevity step is calculated from the effective date of the reconstructed promotion within the historical build-up.

Judiciary Law 37.9 – Upon a one (1) grade appointment or promotion from a salary at or above the maximum, the Increment Code of 04YR must be used and the FIS Amount field is left blank until the year in which the 37.9 methodology is actually to be applied. YR is the two-digit year in which the employee is eligible to receive the Pay Change resulting from the promotion recalculation.

New Reason Codes

New Reason Codes have been created using the Action of Pay Change to reflect the way that longevity steps are added in certain cases as stated in Judiciary Law, Sections 37.3 and 37.9.

Action/Reason Pay Rate Change/373 (Judiciary Law 37.3) Reason Code 373 must be used to report the Pay Change associated with employees who receive a promotion or a promotion recalculation where the resulting salary is between 1st and 2nd Longevity Steps and the employee is due a 2nd Longevity of the current grade after four (4) years. Action/Reason Pay Rate Change/ 379 (Judiciary Law 37.9)Reason Code 379 is used to report the Pay Change associated with employees who are at or above the maximum of their grade and who receive a one (1) grade promotion and are entitled to a promotion recalculation in the year the employee would have moved to 1st or 2nd Longevity Step in the lower grade.

Agencies will initiate this transaction to report retroactive updates to records but generally, these Reason Codes will be used by OSC in Pay Period 1.

Agencies must report the appropriate Action Reason and corresponding Increment Code on the Job Action Request page for eligible employees.

When either Action/Reason combination is used, the Effective Date, Effective Sequence, Pay Rate, Increment Code, Anniversary Date, and FIS (Fixed Incremented Salary) Amount will be the only fields available for entry.

OSC Programming of New Increment Codes

OSC will apply the following programming to the new Increment Codes for April processing:

• 04YR – OSC will apply the maximum salary of the current grade if the salary is below the maximum and if there is a FIS (Fixed Incremented Salary) Amount is blank. If there is a FIS (Fixed Incremented Salary) Amount, OSC will apply the FIS in the appropriate two-digit year in the Increment Code. OSC will not update the Increment Code.
• 05YR- The 2nd longevity increment will be applied to the base salary in the two-digit year in the Increment Code. OSC will not update the Increment Code.

Questions

Additional questions regarding the use of these codes may be directed to your Office of Court Administration liaison in the Albany or NYC office as appropriate.