State Agencies Bulletin No. 830

Subject
NYS-Ride Transportation Benefit Program for Executive Branch Employees with Ratified Contracts, M/C Employees and Unified Court System Employees
Date Issued
June 30, 2008

Purpose

To notify agencies of the Deduction Codes for employees participating in NYS-Ride Transportation Benefit Program.

Background

Payroll Bulletin No. 537 notified agencies that as a result of collective bargaining, the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER) is sponsoring a pilot program to provide pre-tax benefits to eligible Executive Branch employees.

Beginning July 2, 2008, the program will be expanded statewide to Executive Branch employees with ratified contracts, M/C employees, and Unified Court System employees. Employees working in any one of the five boroughs of New York City who currently participates in the pilot program will continue to be eligible to participate in NYS-Ride, regardless of bargaining unit. Post-tax deductions will also be allowed for this program. The program will be administered by the vendor, WageWorks, Inc.

Affected Employees

Employees who receive a regular biweekly paycheck from the Office of the State Comptroller, and who are currently in bargaining units 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08, 13, 18, 46, 47, 52, 66, 67, 79 , 86, 87, 88, 98,CT, G9, DR, F8, SY, SA, SD, SG, SK, SN, SR, and S9

Effective Date(s)

Administration paychecks dated August 20, 2008
Institution paychecks dated August 28, 2008

OSC Actions

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

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 functionality in the payroll system allows for the automatic processing of these deduction codes for the first two (2) paychecks of each month. There will be no deductions taken in the third paycheck in months where three (3) 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 employees who are eligible for the program. The vendor will use this file to match the employee’s current payroll record against enrollment information.

Agency Actions

Agency Human Resource Departments are responsible for assisting employees who encounter problems with enrollment. Information on this process has been communicated by GOER to Health Benefits Administrators.

Questions

Employees may enroll in NYS-Ride online at any time at https://participant.wageworks.com or by telephone 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 866-353-8058.

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