State Agencies Bulletin No. 1945

Subject
Process Changes for Workers’ Compensation Leave in PayServ
Date Issued
September 22, 2021

This bulletin is superseded by Payroll Bulletin No. 1945.1.

Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to notify agencies of several process changes to Workers’ Compensation Leave in PayServ, including entering Job Action Requests for Workers’ Compensation leave corrections, documenting employees with extended leave due to assault-related Workers’ Compensation injuries, and removing Teachers from Workers’ Compensation leave at the end of a contract.

Affected Employees

Employees on Workers’ Compensation leave are affected.

Background

New Action/Reason for Workers’ Compensation Correct History Requests

Agencies do not have the ability to correct employees’ historical Job rows in PayServ. Agencies must enter a Job Action Request > Data Change, with Reason Code COR to request all changes to these rows, including those related to Workers’ Compensation leave. OSC Earnings and Workers’ Compensation teams then review and enter these transactions. New Data Change Reason Code WCR has been created for use by agencies when requesting changes to employees’ Workers’ Compensation leave rows on Job Data to streamline these change request transactions.

Documenting Assault-Related Workers’ Compensation Cases

Employees with a Workers’ Compensation injury related to an assault are entitled to two years of leave but only one year of Workers’ Compensation benefits. These employees are removed from the Workers’ Compensation leave code and placed on LOA/SKL after the first year of leave. Additional documentation is required in PayServ when this change is made. See the Agency Actions section of this bulletin for more information.

Teachers on Workers’ Compensation

Per their academic contract, teachers do not work during the summer months, and are therefore not entitled to Workers’ Compensation benefits during this time. All teachers, both CAL and 21P, must be removed from Workers’ Compensation leave at the end of the contract. OSC has provided new instructions for removing employees from Workers’ Compensation leave. See the Agency Actions section of this bulletin for more information.

Effective Dates

These changes are effective immediately.

OSC Actions

OSC has created new Reason Code WCR for Workers’ Compensation-Related Correct History requests. The Workers’ Compensation team will continue to review and enter these transactions.

Agency Actions

Correct History Requests

Agencies must immediately begin using Job Action Request > Data Change with new Workers’ Compensation Reason Code WCR when submitting a request to correct any history related to Workers’ Compensation leave rows.

Agencies must enter the WCR with a sequence number of 9 and include the following information in all Data Change/WCR Workers’ Compensation Job Action Requests:

  • Effective date(s) for all Workers’ Compensation leave or return from leave transaction(s) being requested
  • The Workers’ Compensation Leave code to be used (Refer to Payroll Bulletin No. 1366 for a list of Workers’ Compensation Action/Reason codes)
  • Detailed instructions if the transaction being requested overlaps an existing leave in the employee’s history, including whether the new leave should replace the existing row(s)

As with all correct history requests, OSC’s Workers’ Compensation team will review the request, manually enter these transactions on Job, and then deny the Job Action Request.

Note: Any Additional Pay change requests related to these Workers’ Compensation changes must still be reviewed by OSC Earnings, and should be requested separately using Data Change > COR.

Assault-Related Workers’ Compensation Cases

Agencies are asked to enter a General Comment when an employee’s absence is due to an assault-related Workers’ Compensation injury and the employee is moved to LOA/SKL after the first year of Workers’ Compensation leave. This provides clarity regarding the nature of the LOA/SKL.

Teachers on Workers’ Compensation

Teachers still absent due to a Workers’ Compensation injury at the end of their contract year must be returned from Workers’ Compensation leave using the appropriate Action/Reason code as outlined in Payroll Bulletin No. 1366 and moved to LOA/LOT in PayServ. Agencies should no longer use code LOA/SKL when removing employees from Workers’ Compensation Leave. If employee has not returned to work by the beginning of the next contract, they must be placed back on Workers’ Compensation leave at the beginning of employee’s contract.

If a CAL teacher is released to return to work during the summer months, they must be placed in an hourly position to avoid incorrect payments. A Balance of Contract must be completed and sent to your OSC auditor for review to pay employee any missing wages. A General Comment explaining the Balance of Contract workup must be entered also. Employee must be returned to CAL position at the beginning of the contract.

If a 21P teacher is released to return to work during the summer months, they can be returned to 21P position as there is no risk of paying them incorrectly.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Workers’ Compensation mailbox.