State Agencies Bulletin No. 393

Subject
Public Employees Federation (PEF) Standby Arbitration Award Implementation
Date Issued
June 5, 2003

Purpose

To notify agencies of the procedure to adjust Standby per the Arbitration Award.

Affected Employees

PEF employees who were paid Standby and Standby Overtime in the fiscal year 1999-2000.

Effective Date(s)

Administration Pay Period 5L, Checks dated 6/18/03 Institution Pay Period 5L, Checks dated 6/26/03.

Background

An Arbitration Award between PEF and the State of New York amended the contract for the 1999-2003 PS&T Unit agreement. This award implemented an increase to the Standby rate effective 4/1/99. The new rate will be 20% of the daily rate of compensation.

Note: The section of the award that implements increased amounts for Overtime Meals to $5.50 will be paid later in the year. The agencies should not submit any adjustments to paid meals or additional Overtime Meals due to the added eligibility for meals or the number of meals until notification is received by OSC.

Agency Actions

The agencies should review the employee's history to verify that the payments are correct. If in the course of this validation, it is determined that Standby for this period was never paid and must be entered, the agency must use Earns Code SOV (Standby Override), or SOO (Standby Overtime Override) and enter the total new amount using the correct dates of the earnings.

If, upon review of the payments, the agency must manually submit an adjustment, they must use the Earns Code SAA in the Time Entry panel using the dates of the earnings either adding or recovering the change.

OSC Actions

OSC will calculate the adjustment for the increased standby rate and enter the amount into the Time Entry panel. OSC will use the archived paychecks and retro earns panels to total the earnings for Standby (Earns Codes SBC and SOV) and Standby Overtime (Earns Codes SOC, SOT, and SOO) for the periods of 4/1/99-3/29/00 for Administration and 3/25/99 - 4/5/00 for Institution. This amount will be used for the basis of the adjustments. The adjustment will be a factor of .3333 of the total earnings.

OSC will insert a row in the Time Entry panel with the last dates of the earnings using the Earns Code SAA (Standby Arbitration Award), established for this purpose, to pay the adjustment. The adjustment will be added to the employee's current check as long as it is the same pay cycle. If the standby was earned in a different pay cycle the adjustment will be in a separate check.

OSC has added a public query to QRY to assist the agencies in determining the Standby earnings.

UG_00_STANDBY_ARCHIVE lists standby payments made during this period which are subject to an increase from 15% to 20% of regular pay. The results of this query, in addition to any retroactive adjustments to these earnings on these dates on the Retro Pay Summary panel, will provide the agency with the total earnings that need to be adjusted.

Payroll Register and Employee's Check / Advice

The Earn Code SAA, and the description Standby Arbitration Award and the amount will be displayed on the payroll register and employee's check and/or advice.

Questions

Questions on this bulletin should be directed to your auditor.