Purpose

Provide agencies with information regarding the automatic processing of Earn Code PS1 and related agency procedures and reports.

Affected Employees

• Employees in BU 01 (NYS Correctional Officers)
• Employees in BU 31 (Council 82 Agency Law Enforcement Services) except employees in the following titles:
  • Forest Ranger 2
  • University Police Investigator 2
  • University Police Officer 2

Effective Date(s)

Paychecks dated 4/14/05, Institution

Paychecks dated 4/20/05, Administration

Background

Pursuant to Chapters 72 & 73 of the Laws of 2000 which implement agreements between the State of New York and NYSCOPBA and Council 82, full-time employees in BU 01 and eligible titles in BU 31 are eligible for ¼ hour of overtime pay for each day that they report to line up for briefing. Pre-Shift Briefing (PS1) is reported on the Additional Pay page as a biweekly amount that is calculated based on the following factors, where applicable (others will be added as required):

• Salary
• Location (LOC, LOM)
• Inconvenience Pay (IPF, IPP)
• Security Enforcement Differential (SED)
• OGS Employee Recognition Award (ORA)
• Productivity Gain Payment (PGP)

The calculation is [(Salary + Additional Pay factors) x .00075] times 2.5.

Exception:

• If the above calculation results in an amount less than $48.00, the employee is eligible for the guaranteed minimum rate of $48.00.

As the employee’s salary or Additional Pay Earnings change, the Pre-Shift Briefing pay amount must change, provided the employee is eligible for more than the guaranteed minimum rate of $48.00.

Currently (as of the date of this bulletin), the agencies must manually calculate and enter rows on the Additional Pay page whenever the Pre-Shift Briefing changes due to changes in salary, job, or additional pay factors.

Pre-Shift Briefing Eligibility

Full-time employees who are Active or on a Paid Leave of Absence with the reason codes of ODL, OGF, SKL or SPF with an Annual (Ann) Pay Basis Code and in Bargaining Units 01 or 31, except those in Forest Ranger 2, University Police Investigator 2 or University Police Officer 2 titles, are eligible for the Pre-Shift Briefing.

OSC Actions

Starting on April 4, 2005, OSC will automatically calculate the Pre-Shift Briefing for any transactions that have been entered with an Action date of March 24, 2005 and later, whether the effective date of the transaction is current or retroactive. This may impact transactions that were entered and are approved by OSC and are entered on the Job Data page or the Additional Pay page on or after March 24, 2005 for Administration Pay Period 26L, (although the bulletin will be effective for Pay Period 27L).

If there is a change in salary, job, or Additional Pay factors, OSC will automatically calculate and insert rows with the amount of the Pre-Shift Briefing where no row already exists for PS1. Existing rows will be recalculated and updated as needed. The process will begin from an effective dated action that can be either current or retroactive. A retroactive calculation will be generated and the actions will be adjusted for any retroactive dates as needed.

The system will automatically start the Pre-Shift Briefing for a Hire, Rehire, Concurrent Hire, Position Change, Transfer or Reinstatement from a Leave Without Pay for employees in eligible bargaining units. The system will only calculate the Pre-Shift Briefing if a salary is posted to the Job Data page.

For employees placed on a PLA/SKL at 50%, the system will insert a PS1 row for $24.00 with the effective date of the paid leave of absence.

For employees placed on a PLA/ODL, OGF or SPF at 100%, the system will insert a PS1 row for $48.00 with the effective date of the paid leave of absence.

For employees reinstated from a PLA/SKL, the system will recalculate the Pre-Shift Briefing amount and insert a PS1 row with the effective date of the reinstatement.

For employees reinstated from a PLA/ODL, OGF or SPF, the system will recalculate the Pre-Shift Briefing amount, but will not change the Pre-Shift Briefing amount if the existing row is $48.00.

The automatic process will not insert or update any rows if the existing amount is $48.00 and there is no end date on the $48.00 row.

For a Position Change or Transfer that moves the employee to an ineligible bargaining unit, title or pay basis code, the system will add an end date of the last date that the Pre-Shift Briefing is due.

OSC will continue to automatically end PS1 earnings when the employee is placed on a leave without pay, terminated or retired.

The system will not change the existing amount of the Pre-Shift Briefing if the amount calculated by the system is one cent (1¢) higher or lower than the existing amount on the Additional Pay page.

If the system calculates $0 or the row should be ended and there is a PS1 row effective dated after that date, the system will not process the transaction. It will appear on the Automatic Preshift Briefing Calculations\Changes not Applied (NHRP565B) report.

After the audit is completed for each pay cycle, the automatic process to calculate the Pre-Shift Briefing will be run once for that pay period. The process will run only for the pay cycle being completed. The process will run on Monday night; in the event of an early submission deadline for that pay period (refer to Payroll Bulletin No. 538), the process may be run as earlier as Friday night. Any transactions entered after the process is run will not be processed using the automatic calculation until the next pay cycle and will result in an incorrect payment to the employee for that pay period.

Refer to the attached chart Pre-Shift Briefing Actions for examples.

Retroactive Processing

As a result of this automatic PS1 calculation process, the following may occur:

• For retroactive transactions entered or changed starting with the action date of 3/24/05 for an employee who was on a paid leave of absence and the PS1 row was not reduced to the appropriate amount of $24.00 or $48.00 as required by the system, the system will now change the amount of the Pre-Shift Briefing rows as required. The system will create a negative retro amount. If the adjustment to the Pre-Shift Briefing for these rows was previously taken in the quarterly adjustments for Pre-Shift Briefing, the agency must enter a General Comment stating that the retro Pre-shift was previously reduced and the retro must be turned off so it will not be taken twice.
• All retroactive negative adjustments will be reviewed by the Payroll Auditor to determine if the earnings are recoverable under the State Finance Law. If so, the negative retroactive adjustment may be processed if no General Comments or OVP are reported.

Agency Actions

Agency Responsibility Regarding PS1 Earnings

Agencies must enter PS1 rows on the Additional Pay page in the following circumstances:

• If PS1 should be $48.00 and the employee is Active (not on a paid leave of absence on the Job Data page) and the automatic PS1 calculation will exceed $48.00, the agency must insert a row on the Additional Pay page to change the PS1 earnings to $48.00, and enter a General Comment explaining why the employee is only eligible for $48.00 (e.g. employee is on an extended absence charging leave credits or on a workers’ compensation leave with pay that is not required to be reported on the employee’s Job record).
• If an Active employee is receiving $48.00 and then becomes eligible to receive a higher PS1 amount, the agency must insert a row on the Additional Pay page to increase the PS1 earnings.
• If an Active employee is receiving $48.00 PS1 due to the minimum guaranteed PS1 rate per pay period and has a salary increase or an additional pay factor change that would increase the PS1 amount higher than $48.00, the system will not change that amount. The agency will need to insert a PS1 row on the Additional Pay page to increase the PS1 earnings.
• If an employee is reinstated from a PLA/ODL, OGF or SPF at 100% and the employee is due the full Pre-Shift Briefing amount, the agency must insert a row on the Additional Pay page to increase the PS1 earnings.
• It is the agency’s responsibility to review the Automatic Pre-shift Briefing Calculations/Changes not Applied (NHRP565B) report each pay period and enter any changes for the PS1 amount on the Additional Pay page in the following pay period.

NOTE:

When agencies are required to enter a Data Change/Correct History (DTA/COR) on the Job Action Request page because of the inability to insert row(s) in the Additional Pay page due to existing subsequent rows, the procedures are:

• Report only the earliest effective dated row with the new calculation amount for the PS1. The system will automatically update or insert subsequent rows, where applicable.
• If changing other Additional Pay factors (LOC, LOM, IPF, IPP, SED, ORAor PGP) that will affect the PS1 amount, report all rows that need to be corrected for these earn codes. The system will automatically calculate thePS1 earnings and update or insert PS1 rows where applicable. There is no need to report the PS1 earnings.

Agency Responsibility for Submitting PS1 Adjustments

• The agency must submit an Adjust Pre-Shift Briefing (AP1) to report Pre-Shift Briefing for any retroactive Hire, Rehire, Concurrent Hire, or Reinstatement from a Leave Without Pay, as required by current procedures.
• If there are multiple rates or work percentages (e.g. an employee is placed on PLA/SKL from 100% to 50%) for the Pre-Shift Briefing within the same pay period, the agency must enter Adjust Pre-Shift Briefing (AP1) as required to adjust the Pre-Shift Briefing for that pay period. The Pre-Shift Briefing will be paid for the entire pay period at the rate in effect on the last effective date for the pay period.
• The automatic processing does not end the current requirements to adjust the Pre-Shift Briefing when changes are made within a payperiod and there is no change in pay status (i.e. employee is not going on or coming off the payroll).

Agency Responsibility When PS1 Earnings is Ended or Decreased on a Retroactive Basis

• If an employee who receives PS1 earnings has a Job or Additional Pay action reported on a retroactive basis and the action will result in a decrease in PS1 earnings, the agency must determine if the overpayment is recoverable under the State Finance Law. If the overpayment is recoverable, the agency must enter how the overpayment will be recovered in the General Comments page. If the overpayment will be recovered using the Earn Code OVP, the agency must enter the OVP in the same pay period the automatic negative retroactive adjustment will be generated as a result of the automatic calculation process. If the overpayment will not be recovered, the agency must enter the explanation for non-recovery in the General Comments page.

Control D Reports

The following reports will be available for agency review after each payroll processing.

Employees may appear on both reports.

Automatic Preshift Briefing Calculations/Changes Applied (NHRP565A)

This report identifies all employees who had a PS1 row inserted or updated by the system.

Fields on the report include Employee ID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Effective date of the PS1 row inserted or updated, End date of PS1 row (on Updates only), Old PS1 amount, New PS1 amount and the Action (Inserted or Updated).

Automatic Preshift Briefing Calculations/Changes not Applied (NHRP565B)

This report identifies all employees for whom the system determined there should be a change to the PS1 amount. However, the employee is receiving an amount of $48.00 per pay period so the system will not change the amount. If the system determines that the employee is no longer eligible for PS1 but cannot end date the PS1 row, the employee will appear on this list.

It is the agency’s responsibility to review this report each pay period and enter any changes for the PS1 amount on the Additional Pay page in the following pay period.

Fields on the report include Employee ID, Employees Record number, Employee Name, Current Effective Date, Calculated Effective Date, Current PS1 Amount, and the Calculated PS1 Amount.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Audit mailbox.