Subject

April 2006 Service Increments, Longevity Pay and Longevity Bonus for Employees in the Unified Court System (UCS)

Purpose

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

Affected Employees

Eligible graded salaried employees in the following bargaining units: SR, SY, SN, SG, S9, SA, SD, G9, DR, F8, SK, 86, 87, 88, and CT.

Background

Certain UCS employees are eligible to receive Increments and Longevity Payments pursuant to Article 2, Section 37 of Judiciary Law and implementing legislation for collective bargaining agreements.

Effective Date(s)

4/6/06, Paychecks dated 5/3/06, Pay Period 1L.

Eligibility Criteria

Employees must have 120 full work days from 4/1/05 through 3/31/06.

Employees in Bargaining Unit SY will receive Increments based on the 4/1/02 Salary Schedule. The Longevity Bonus (JLO) amount is $1,500 for employees who have at least twenty (20) years of continuous service in UCS. Employees in Bargaining Units SR, SN, SG, S9, SA, SD, G9, DR, F8, SK, 86, 87, 88 and CT will receive Increments based on the 4/1/05 Salary Schedule. The Longevity Bonus (JLO) amount is $1,750 for employees who have at least twenty (20) years of continuous service in UCS and $1,850 for employees who have at least twenty-five (25) years of continuous service in UCS.

OSC Actions

After payroll processing is completed for Pay Period 1L, OSC will process Increments and Longevity Payments for eligible employees whose status is Active, on Paid Leave of Absence (except those on Military Stipend) or Workers’ Compensation Leave (WDL) effective 4/6/06, except as noted below.

Pay Change, Position Change (other than Change Line), or Transfer Job Data rows effective 4/6/06 or later with the Increment Code 5555 will not be automatically updated by OSC.

OSC will update all subsequent rows, except as noted above, in which the employee is in an eligible bargaining unit regardless of status using the Action Reason of Pay Rt Chg/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary). Exception: If the employee was placed on a paid Military Stipend Leave after 4/6/06, the PLA row will not be updated.

Service Increments

• Increment Code 0001: Effective 4/6/06, for employees who are entitled to an Increment based on the Salary Schedule of either 4/1/02 or 4/1/05, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the Increment, not to exceed the maximum salary rate, using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg /INC (Pay Rate Change/Increment).
• Increment Code 0004: Effective 4/6/06, for employees who are entitled to a partial Increment to the maximum salary rate based on the employee's Fixed Incremented Salary (FIS), OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the FIS amount appearing on the Job Data Compensation page, using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg/CSL (Pay Rate Change/Correct Salary) provided the FIS amount is greater than the employee’s Comp Rate.
• Increment Code 0006: Effective 4/6/06, for employees who are entitled to a partial Increment based on their Fixed Incremented Salary (FIS), OSC will automatically insert a row in the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the FIS amount appearing on the Job Data Compensation page using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg/INC (Pay Rate Change/Increment) provided the FIS amount is greater than the employee’s Comp Rate.

Longevity Pay

• Increment Code 2002: Effective 4/6/06, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page to reflect an increase to Longevity Step 1 from the Salary Schedule of either 4/1/02 or 4/1/05, using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Pay).
  
  
• Increment Code 1998: Effective 4/6/06, OSC will insert a row on the employee's Job Data page to reflect an increase to Longevity Step 2 from the Salary Schedule of either 4/1/02 or 4/1/05, using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg/LGP (Pay Rate Change/ Longevity Pay).
  
  
• Increment Code 0406: Effective 4/6/06, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page to reflect the FIS amount using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg/ 379. If the FIS is blank, no automatic processing will be done by OSC.
  
  
• Increment Code 0506: Effective 4/6/06, OSC will insert a row on the employee’s Job Data page to reflect an increase to Longevity Step 2 from the Salary Schedule of either 4/1/02 or 4/1/05, using the Action/Reason of Pay Rt Chg/373.

Longevity Bonus

Employees who as of 4/1/06 have at least twenty (20) years of continuous service in the Unified Court System and have a performance rating of other than “Unsatisfactory” shall receive a bonus of $1,500 for full-time employees in Bargaining Unit SY and $1,750 for full-time employees in all other bargaining units. Part-time employees will receive prorated amounts.

Full-time employees who as of 4/1/06 have at least twenty-five (25) years of continuous service in the Unified Court System and have a performance rating of other than “Unsatisfactory” shall receive a bonus of $1850 in all bargaining units (except SY). Part-time employees will receive prorated amounts.

OSC will automatically insert a row using the Earn Code JLO (Judicial Longevity Bonus) on the Additional Pay page, effective 4/6/06, for employees whose status on 4/1/06 is Active or Paid Leave of Absence [except those on PLA/MLS (Paid Leave of Absence/Military Stipend)] and whose Anniversary Date on the Job Data Compensation page is 3/31/1986 or earlier. The Judicial Longevity Bonus amount is $1,500, $1,750 or $1,850, whichever is applicable, for full-time employees and will be prorated for part-time employees.

Automatic Update of Increment Codes

After the Increments and Longevity Payments are processed in Pay Period 1L, OSC will automatically update the following increment codes, as appropriate, on the Job Data record using the Action/Reason of Data Chg/CIC (Data Change/ Correct Increment Code).

Agency Actions - Pay Period 1L

• The agency must request the Action/Reason of Data Chg/USP (Data Change/ Unsatisfactory Performance) effective 4/6/06 for all employees who are not due an automatic increase or Judicial Longevity Payment due to an "Unsatisfactory" rating. The increment code must be 0003.
  
  
• For Pay Changes, Position Changes and Transfers effective prior to 4/6/06, the agency must not include the Service Increment or Longevity Increment in the Pay Rate field. The increment code must be the 2006 increment code.
  
  
• For Pay Changes, Position Changes (other than Change Line) and Transfers effective on 4/6/06 or later, no automatic processing will be done by OSC:
  • The agency must include any Service Increment, Longevity Payment or 3% Salary Increase for which the employee may be eligible in the Pay Rate field.
  • The agency must report the Increment Code 5555. This increment code will prevent the automatic increment from being applied.
  • In addition, if the agency must report a subsequent job transaction for an employee who has a Pay Change, Position Change (except Change Line), or Transfer action submitted 4/6/06 or later, the agency should enter the transaction after the Pay Change, Position Change or Transfer transaction is approved by OSC and appears on Job.

Time Entry
To report miscellaneous earnings automatically calculated by the system (i.e. overtime), agencies must enter multiple rows in the Time Entry page if the earnings dates being reported overlap the effective date of the salary increase.

The first row must be inserted with the inclusive dates prior to the effective date of the salary change. The second row must be inserted with the inclusive dates equal to and after the effective date of the salary change.

Agency Actions - Pay Period 2L

Beginning in Pay Period 2L, agencies must submit the appropriate Pay Changes for all eligible employees effective the date of the return to the payroll from Paid Leave of Absence with a Reason of MLS (Military Stipend), or a Leave without Pay (except for Workers’ Compensation Leave).

Increments and Longevity Payments

Agencies must submit a Pay Change, if applicable, using the Reason of INC (Increment) or LGP (Longevity) on the Job Action Request page for employees who did not receive an automatic payment but are due an increase, as identified on the following reports:

• NHRP708 – Mass Increment Payment Exception Report
• NHRP704 - Mass Increment Payment Report

Agency Update of Increment Codes

After the Increments and Longevity Payments are processed in Pay Period 1L, agencies must update the following increment codes, as appropriate, on the Job Data record using the Action/Reason of Data Chg/CIC (Data Change/ Correct Increment Code).

Longevity Bonus

To report a Longevity Bonus for an eligible employee who did not receive an automatic payment, enter the information on the Additional Pay page as follows:

*If an employee was eligible on 4/1/06 and on the payroll on 4/6/06, the agency must enter 4/6/06. If the employee was otherwise eligible and off the payroll on 4/6/06, enter the date the employee returned to the payroll.

Control-D Reports

The following report will be available after processing of Pay Period 25 is completed (3/29/06). The report identifies employees who will not receive an automatic Increment based on available information at the close of Pay Period 25. This will give agencies time to correct the employees’ records if necessary, before automatic processing takes place.

Mass Increment Payment Exception Report (NHRP708)
Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Salary, FIS Amount and Increment Code. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary will not be increased with one of the following messages:

Salary below minimum
Position and job do not match
FIS missing
FIS below current
Increment code invalid
Increment code missing
Insufficient days

Note: The employee may have the correct number days by the start of Pay Period 1. In those cases the agency should not submit a Service Increment as the employee will be paid automatically.)

The following reports are available for agency review after the automatic payments have been processed.

Mass Increment Payment Exception Report (NHRP708)
This report identifies employees who did not receive an automatic Increment. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Salary, FIS Amount and Increment Code. The report identifies the reason the employee’s salary was not increased with one of the following messages:

Salary below minimum
Position and Job do not match
FIS missing
FIS below current
Increment code missing
Increment code invalid
Insufficient Days

Note: OSC will count days from Pay Period 1 through Pay Period 26 to determine eligibility for a Service Increment. When reviewing this list, agencies should determine eligibility by counting days from 4/1/05 through 3/31/06.

Mass Salary Payments/Mass Increment Payment Report (NHRP704)
Two generations of this report will be run. The first report identifies all employees who received the automatic Service Increment. The second report identifies all employees who received the Longevity Payment. Fields on the report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Pay Basis Code, Part-time Percentage, Salary, Action Reason and Increment Code.

One Time Payment Report (NPAY770)
This report identifies all employees receiving an automatic payment for Earn Code JLO (Judicial Longevity Bonus). Fields on this report include EmplID, Employee Record Number, Employee Name, Earn Code, Grade, Bargaining Unit, Part-time Percentage and Payment Amount.

Questions

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