Subject

Retroactive Senior Officer Series Differential for Eligible Employees Represented by Negotiating Units SY, DR, F8 and 87

Purpose

To explain OSC’s automatic processing and provide instructions for payments not processed automatically.

Affected Employees

Eligible employees in Negotiating Units SY, DR, F8 and 87.

Background

Chapter 104 of the Laws of 2006 and various side letters provide for retroactive payments of the Senior Officer Series Differential for eligible employees in Negotiating Units SY, DR, F8 and 87.

Effective Date(s)

Pay Period 18L, paychecks dated 12/27/06.

Eligibility and Payment Provisions

Legislation provides for the establishment of a Senior Officer Series Differential for eligible employees to be paid retroactively in the following amounts:

General eligibility for the Senior Officer Series Differential states that an employee must have been an employee of the Unified Court System on January 8, 2004 and be in one of the following titles in Negotiating units SY, DR, F8 or 87 on February 28, 2006;

• Senior Court Officer*
• NYS Court Officer Sergeant

Eligible employees must be in an eligible bargaining unit and have a status of Active or Paid Leave.

Eligible employees working part-time are entitled to receive a prorated payment based on the employee’s part-time percentage.

OSC Actions

OSC has created new Earnings Codes to be used on the Additional Pay page to pay the Senior Officer Series Differential:.

• SOS (Senior Officer Series Differential)
• AOD (Adjust Senior Officer Series Differential)

For certain eligible employees who are in an eligible bargaining unit and title on or after the effective payment dates, OSC will insert new SOS rows onto the Additional Pay page with the following effective dates and amounts:

OSC will provide a listing of employees who will not be automatically processed to the UCS Main Office. The employees identified on the listing must be submitted manually. The listing was provided to the UCS Main Office on December 6, 2006.

Agency Actions

Agencies must submit transactions on the Additional Pay page for all employees identified as eligible on the listing, using the Earnings Code SOS and the appropriate effective dates and end dates, if necessary.

Agencies must also submit adjustments to SOS earnings for any mid-pay period adjustments for manually or automatically paid employees using Earnings Code AOD (Adjust Senior Officer Series Differential). The current pay period Begin Date must be used for all AOD transactions.

Automatic  Retroactive Processing

OSC will automatically calculate adjustments resulting from the retroactive SOS payments.

For eligible employees who have worked in more than one (1) agency since the effective date of the SOS payments, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency.

Retroactive Adjustments for Additional Pay and Time Entry Earnings
Time Entry earn codes that are calculated based on an employee’s additional salary factors such as overtime (OTD) and holiday (HPA) will be automatically adjusted.

Miscellaneous Payment Information

The Senior Officer Series Differential (SOS) is included in the calculation of overtime and is pensionable.

Deduction Information

All general deductions for employees whose status is Terminated, Retired or Deceased will be automatically cancelled by OSC with the exception of the following:

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

All retroactive adjustments and the Earnings Codes SOS and AOD and their descriptions will be displayed on the payroll register and the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice.

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 Tax and Finance, Division of the Treasury, per instructions in Payroll Bulletin No. 456.

Control-D Report

On December 15, 2006, the following Control-D reports will be available for agency review:

NHRP596a New SOS Payments
This report identifies all employees receiving an automatic increase for SOS in Job Code 018334 on 2/28/06. Fields on this report include Agy Code, EmplID, Employee Record Number, Effective Date, New Additional Pay Amount and Earns End Date (if applicable).

NHRP596b New SOS Payments
This report identifies all employees receiving an automatic increase for SOS in Job Code 018337 on 2/28/06. Fields on this report include Agy Code, EmplID, Employee Record Number, Effective Date, New Additional Pay Amount and Earns End Date (if applicable).

Questions

Questions regarding this Bulletin may be directed to your Payroll Auditor.