State Agencies Bulletin No. 537

Subject
New NYS-Ride Transportation Benefit Pilot Program for Executive Branch Employees
Date Issued
March 2, 2005

Purpose

To notify agencies of new Deduction Codes to be used to process deductions for employees participating in NYS-Ride Transportation Benefit Pilot Program.

Background

The Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, as a result of collective bargaining, is sponsoring a pilot program to provide pre-tax benefits to eligible Executive Branch employees. Post-tax deductions will also be allowed for this program. The program will be administered by the vendor, WageWorks, Inc.

Eligible Employees

Executive Branch employees who receive a regular biweekly paycheck from the Office of the State Comptroller, who are in an eligible bargaining unit and who are assigned a work location in one of the five boroughs of New York City.

Eligible bargaining units are: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 13, 18, 28, 31, 46, 47, 52, 61, 66, 67, 79, and 98.

Effective Date(s)

Institution Cycle Paychecks dated March 17, 2005.
Administration Cycle Paychecks dated March 23, 2005.

OSC Actions

OSC will process deduction transactions using two new deduction codes that have been established for this program. The codes are as follows:

New Deduction Codes

CODE Narrative Description
421 NYS-Ride Pre-Tax: This code is to be used to process biweekly pre-tax deductions.
422 NYS-Ride Post-Tax: This code is to be used to process biweekly post-tax deductions.

Note: Enrollment for this program is based upon two (2) deductions each month. In order to accommodate this process, a new functionality in the payroll system allows for the automatic processing of these deduction codes for the first two paychecks of each month. There will be no deductions taken in the third paycheck in months where three paychecks are issued.

The vendor will submit all transactions for starting, canceling and/or changing these deductions. There is no agency update access required in the payroll system.

Eligibility File

OSC has created an eligibility file that will be transmitted on a weekly basis to the vendor. This file contains information that identifies full-time employees who are eligible for the pilot program. The vendor will use this file to match the employee’s current payroll record against enrollment information.

Agency Actions

During the pilot program, agency Human Resource Departments are responsible to assist with the enrollment process for eligible part-time employees. Information on this process has been communicated by GOER to Directors of Human Resources.

Questions

Employees may enroll in NYS-Ride online anytime at www.nysride.com or by phone at 866-428-7781 Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Time. Employees who are hearing impaired may contact WageWorks Customer Service through TDD at 866-361-8017.

Questions regarding employee eligibility may be directed to the GOER NYS-Ride staff at 518-473-8091. This phone number is for Agency Payroll and Human Resource staff only and should not be given to employees.

Payroll processing questions may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.