Purpose:

The purpose of this bulletin is to provide information and processing instructions for implementing the new APSU 15 Year Seniority Pay.

Affected Employees:

Employees with 15 years of cumulative service in APSU or any predecessor unit are affected.

Background:

Chapter 60 of the Laws of 2022 and the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the State of New York and the Police Benevolent Association of New York State, Inc. (PBANYS) provide for a new biweekly seniority pay effective 04/01/2021 for eligible employees.

Effective Dates:

Beginning on 04/01/2021, employees who meet the eligibility criteria may receive the new biweekly seniority pay. Agencies must submit transactions in Administration Pay Period 7L, paycheck dated 07/20/2022 for those employees currently eligible to receive the payment. If an employee becomes eligible subsequent to Administration Pay Period 7L, the agency should submit the transaction in the pay period the employee becomes eligible.

Eligibility Criteria:

Employees who meet ALL the following criteria are eligible to receive the APSU 15 Year Seniority Pay.

• Employees must have 15 or more years of cumulative service in APSU or any predecessor unit on or after 04/01/2021. If an employee’s work schedule was less than 100% at any time during the eligible service, that period of time is prorated when determining years of cumulative service.
• Employees must have a Payroll Status of Active or Leave With Pay (except Paid Leave of Absence/MLS) on the employee’s payment effective date.
• Employees must have a Comp Rate Code of ANN on the employee’s payment effective date.
• Employees must be in a position associated with BU31 on the employee’s payment effective date.

OSC Actions:

OSC has created the following new Additional Pay Earnings Codes to pay the new bi-weekly APSU 15 Year Seniority Pay. These earnings are included in the calculation of overtime, extra time, Premium Overtime (Earnings Code PRO), holiday pay, annual and overtime accrual lump sum payments, and lost time.

New Additional Pay Earns Code	Description	Associated Retro Code
SPU	Seniority Pay APSU	RS7
ASP	Adjust Seniority Pay APSU	N/A

Automatic Retroactive Processing:

OSC will automatically calculate retroactive adjustments for Time Entry earnings that are calculated by the system and that include Additional Pay factors, such as OT for Annual 2080 (Earnings Code OCS) and Holiday Pay (Earnings Code HPA), resulting from payment of Seniority Pay APSU (Earnings Code SPU) beginning 04/01/2021.

If an employee receives a payment and has worked in more than one agency but has been paid by all agencies in the same Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, all retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency.

If an employee receives a payment and has worked in more than one agency and has been paid in more than one Employee Record Number since the effective date of the payment, the retroactive adjustments will be paid in the most current agency of the Employee Record Number in which the payment was made.

Agency Actions:

To pay the new bi-weekly APSU 15 Year Seniority Pay to eligible employees, agencies must submit the following information on the Additional Pay page or the Automated Interface file (NHRP573):

Earnings Code:	SPU
Effective Date:	04/01/2021 or Date Employee Becomes Eligible
OT Eff Date:	Same as Effective Date
Annual Addl Earnings:	$1,200
Earnings End Date:	Leave Blank (unless employee became ineligible between 04/02/2021 and 07/06/2022, then insert the date prior to the employee’s appointment to an ineligible position)
Goal Balance:	Leave Blank

If the employee is appointed to an ineligible position effective after receiving the new APSU 15 Year Seniority Pay, the additional payment must be ended. Therefore, the agency must insert a row on the Additional Pay page at the Effective Date level of Earnings Code SPU and enter the following information:

Effective Date:	Last date in eligible position (date prior to appointment to an ineligible position)
OT Eff Date:	Same as original OT Eff Date
Annual Addl Earnings:	Same as original amount (populates automatically)
End Date:	Same as Effective Date
Goal Balance:	Same as Annual Addl Earnings (to prevent making another payment)

Agency Actions - Retroactive Processing

Reporting Retroactive Adjustments

Time Entry earnings codes that are submitted with an amount will not be adjusted automatically. Therefore, beginning in Administration Pay Period 7L, agencies must report the adjustment amount for earnings codes such as Extra Time Override (Earnings Code EXO).

Correcting an Automatic Retroactive Adjustment

When certain conditions exist in an employee’s record, the automatic retroactive adjustment may be incorrect. Therefore, the agency is responsible for identifying employees who meet the following conditions and, if necessary, submitting the necessary adjustment:

• If an employee had a check returned or exchanged on an AC-230 for dates on or after the effective date of the payment, the payroll system does not consider the AC-230 when calculating the automatic retroactive adjustment.
• Adjustments for earnings that are calculated automatically, such as OT for Annual 2080 (Earnings Code OCS), will be calculated incorrectly if the dates previously reported as a single entry on the Time Entry page overlap the effective date of the payment. The system will calculate an adjustment for all earnings reported in a single entry based on the salary in effect on the Earnings End Date.
• For employees who had a change reported on the Job Data page since the effective date of the payment and the action resulted in an overpayment of earnings, the automatic negative retroactive adjustment may not have been processed because the overpayment was either not recoverable or was recovered using an overpayment earnings code or an AC-230. In this case, the negative retroactive adjustment may be re-generated when the payment is processed. OSC will turn off (not process) the automatic negative adjustment for these employees since in most cases these overpayments were either not recoverable or recovered using another method.

If an overpayment of earnings is identified after the automatic payment is processed but before the paycheck is received by the employee, the employee must be notified of the overpayment and the adjustment that will be reported in a subsequent pay period.

Submitting an Adjustment

When an adjustment is needed for COVID-19 related overtime such as Covid-19 OT Override (Earnings Code CVO),Earnings Code ARC(Adjust Retro Raise for C19 OT) must be used to process the adjustment. When an adjustment is needed for non-COVID-19 related overtime or recall such as Out of Title Overtime (Earnings Code OTT),Earnings Code ARO(Adj Retro Raise for OT and RCL) must be used to process the adjustment. Please refer to Payroll Bulletin No. 1893 Reporting Adjustments to Overtime for more information. Agenciesmust continue to use Earnings Code AJR (Adjust Raise) for all other override Time Entry Earnings Codes requiring a manual adjustment as a result of a retroactive increase.

To process a retroactive adjustment or correct an automatic retroactive adjustment, agencies must submit the following information on the Time Entry page or the Time Entry Interface (NPAY502) using Earnings Code AJR, ARC or ARO:

Earnings Begin Date:	The first date included in the adjustment
Earnings End Date:	The last date included in the adjustment
Earn Code:	AJR, ARC or ARO
Amount:	Amount to be adjusted
Comments:	An explanation of the adjustment

General Deductions:

All general deductions for employees whose Payroll Status is Terminated, Retired, or Deceased will be automatically canceled by OSC with the exception of percentage based dues and the following:

Code	Description
406	Strike/Discip Fine
410	Health Care Spending Account
420	NY Dependent Care Contribution
425	Repay State Loans/Debt
426	Higher Ed Repay State Loan
428	Dependent Care
433	Total Unemployment Ins Owed
442	Pre-Tax Adoption
500	Medicare Deficiency
501	Social Security Deficiency
502	NYS SS/Medicare Deficiency
HIATRG	Regular After Tax Health
HIATSP	Special After Tax Health Adj

Retirement Information:

Monies paid using the earnings codes mentioned above are included as salary for retirement purposes.

Tax Information:

These earnings are taxable income, will be included in the employee’s taxable gross, and are subject to all employment and income taxes. Income taxes will be calculated using the employee’s current withholding elements in PayServ.

Adjustments (Earnings Codes AJR, ARC, and ARO) and retroactive payments (Earnings Codes RXX) are supplemental taxable income and will be included in the employee’s taxable gross subject to all employment and income taxes.

Federal, State, and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method. Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method (1.95975% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents).

Special Wage Payments for Individuals Who Filed for Retirement Social Security Benefits:

Per Internal Revenue Service Publication 957, OSC will be reporting retro payments made to individuals who have filed for Social Security benefits to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

As PayServ does not include this information, OSC will be mailing a Request for Special Wage Payment Report to inactive individuals who are 62 or older in the calendar year and to active employees with the New York Retiree Indicator checked in Modify a Person who receive the retroactive payment.Recipients of this mailing will be asked to fill out the request and return it to OSC for inclusion on the Special Wage Payment report to SSA.

This report will be submitted to SSA after the close of the 2022 tax year. It is important that agencies ensure the New York Retiree Indicator box is checked for rehired retirees. Please see Payroll Bulletin No. 1728 for further details on the New York Retiree Indicator box.

Undeliverable Checks:

When a valid payroll check is undeliverable due to the agency’s inability to locate the employee, the agency should follow the Agency Actions identified inPayroll Bulletin No. 1786 - Non-Negotiated and/or Undeliverable New York State Payroll Checks.

Checks issued to eligible employees who are now deceased should be returned with a completed Next of Kin Affidavit (Form AC 934-P), original death certificate and a Report of Check Exchange (Form AC 1476-P). If a Next of Kin Affidavit has been previously submitted for a deceased employee’s payroll check, OSC will accept a photocopy of this form along with a new Report of Check Exchange.

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice:

The Earnings Code SPU and the amount paid will be displayed on the Payroll Register. The Earnings Description Seniority Pay APSU and the amount paid will appear on the employee’s paycheck stub and direct deposit advice (if applicable).

All retroactive adjustments will be displayed on the Payroll Register using the appropriate Earnings Code and the amount paid and will be displayed on the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice using the appropriate Earnings Description and the amount paid unless the number of earnings codes exceeds 13. Agencies should utilize Locked Query LQ_PCD_PAYCHECK_EARNINGS_BY_ID to identify a complete list of regular earnings and retroactive adjustments if there are more than 13 earnings codes.

Questions:

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

Questions regarding general deductions may be directed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.