Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform CUNY agencies of the additional bargaining units being added for the NYS Paid Family Leave program.

Affected Employees

All employees in the below bargaining units will be affected.

Background

The City University of New York (CUNY) agreed to implement the NYS Paid Family Leave program (PFL) beginning January 1, 2021.  CUNY represented employees who meet the eligibility requirements will be covered under the New York State Paid Family Leave program (PFL).

The New York State Department of Financial Services has announced that the 2022 premium rate and the maximum weekly employee contribution for coverage will be 0.511% (0.00511) of an employee’s weekly wage, up to the statewide average weekly wage.  Based on the 2022 average weekly wage amount, the maximum employee premium deduction for Paid Family Leave will be $423.71 per year.

Effective Dates

Deductions will start being taken from employees’ paychecks on March 24, 2022.

Eligibility Criteria

All the employees in the above bargaining units (TC, U2, U6, TQ, U5) are required to be covered under this program.

OSC Actions

OSC will set the FLI (Family Leave Insurance) Status on the State Tax Data page to ‘Subject’ for all employees in the above bargaining units.  The FLI Status will be set to “Not Applicable” for employees who are not eligible.

OSC has created Action/Reason codes to identify employees who have received approval to use the NY Paid Family Leave benefit:

• LOA/PFL - Leave of Absence/Paid Family Leave
• RFL/PFL - Return from Leave/Paid Family Leave

OSC will deduct Paid Family Leave from employees’ paychecks using the current rate of 0.511% (0.00511), not to exceed the maximum deduction of $423.71 annually.

Agency Actions

Agencies must notify affected employees

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.