NYS Comptroller Seal  

Bureau of State Payroll Services

Date: July 6, 2000

 Bulletin No. UCS-29

Subject $500 Signing Bonus for the Unified Court System
Purpose To explain the automatic processing of the Bonus payment and to provide agencies instructions for adding or deleting payments
Affected Employees Represented and unrepresented employees in the following bargaining units who meet the eligibility criteria defined below

Represented employees in bargaining units:

SR S8 G9 87
SY SA DR
SN S9 F8
SG SD SK

Unrepresented employees in bargaining units CT, 86, and 88
Effective Date Payment will be included in the employee’s regular check, dated July 19, 2000.
Background Chapters 69, 70 and 71 of the Laws of 2000, which implement agreements between the State and various bargaining units in the Unified Court System, provide for a Signing Bonus of $500.
Eligibility and Payment Amounts Represented annual-salaried and hourly employees who are active or on an authorized leave on June 20, 2000
Unrepresented annual-salaried employees who are active or on an authorized leave on June 20, 2000
The bonus payment is $500 and is not pro-rated for hourly or part-time employees.
The bonus payment is pensionable and is not included in overtime calculations.
Employees Not Eligible for Payment Employees in grade 570
Unrepresented hourly employees in bargaining units 86, 88, and CT
Employees who were on an unauthorized leave on June 20, 2000 (Status on June 20, 2000 was LOA/Reason of RPD)
Employees who were on a leave of absence in a UCS agency on June 20, 2000 and who were working in a state agency, other than a UCS agency, on June 20, 2000
OSC Automatic Payment Processing On July 3, 2000, OSC will automatically insert a row in the Time Entry panel using the earnings code RBP to pay the Bonus to the following employees:

All annual salaried employees who were active or on a leave of absence on June 20, 2000

All represented hourly employees who were active on June 20, 2000

The Earnings Code RBP will contain the following information:

Earnings Begin Date June 20, 2000
Earnings End Date June 20, 2000
Amount $500.00
Agency Payment Processing In Period 7L, agencies are responsible for:

Deleting the automatic RBP earnings for employees who were on an unauthorized leave (LOA/RPD) on June 20, 2000

Identifying eligible employees who did not have the automatic RBP earnings added to the Time Entry panel because they were not active or on an authorized leave on the Job Data panel at the time the automatic RBP earnings were inserted by OSC on July 3, 2000 (e.g., action of Hire or Rehire was entered on Job Data panel after the RBP earnings were added and the effective date of the Hire or Rehire action was on or before 6/20/2000). For these employees, the agency must ADD the Bonus payment to the Time Entry panel, using the RBP earnings code.

Identifying employees who had the automatic RBP earnings added to the Time Entry panel who are no longer eligible for the payment, because an action was entered on the Job Data panel after the RBP earnings were automatically added on July 3, 2000, which made the employee no longer eligible for the payment (e.g. TERM or LOA/RPD action was entered on the Job Data panel after the automatic RBP earnings were added on July 3, 2000 and the effective date of the TERM or LOA/RPD was on or before 6/20/2000). For these employees, the agency must DELETE the RBP earnings code in the Time Entry panel.

Identifying employees who had the automatic RBP earnings added to the Time Entry panel on July 3, 2000 and who subsequently had an action of Transfer entered on the Job Data panel and the effective date of the Transfer was on or before 6/20/2000. These transfers refer to employees who transferred from one UCS agency to another UCS agency.

For these employees, agencies must DELETE the automatic RBP earnings from the former agency’s Time Entry panel and ADD the RBP earnings to the new agency’s Time Entry panel.

Agencies may ADD or DELETE the automatic RBP earnings after the agency cut-off date for period 7L, July 5, 2000, but no later than noon on July 7, 2000.

Payroll Register and Employees Paycheck or Advice The Earn code RBP and the amount of the payment will be displayed on the payroll register and the employee’s check or advice.
Listings A listing of employees who received the Bonus payment will be mailed to the agencies the week of July 10, 2000.
 

Deduction Processing

If an inactive employee is receiving a Bonus payment only and no other earnings, OSC will cancel all deductions with the exception of the following:

406-Strike/Discip Fine
416-Copeland Deferred Compensation
418-Copeland Deferred Compensation-Additional Amount
425-Repay State Loans/Debt
500-Medicare Deficiency
501-Social Security Deficiency
582-CUNY SS/Med Deficiency
GARNSH-Garnishment

Health Insurance Deductions If a transaction is received from the Department of Civil Service for a health insurance deduction, the transaction will be processed and the deduction will be taken from the employee’s check.
For Additional Information Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.