ARCHIVED CD 2009-006

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March 27, 2009

SUBJECT: New Edit Messages for Taken on Strength (TOS) and Miscellaneous Staffing Action (MSA)

1. PURPOSE

1.1. The purpose of this directive is to introduce changes to the data entry requirements for the on-line Regional Pay System (RPS) and for batch/bulk input transactions. These changes are effective March 31, 2009, and will ensure that the correct pension type code is input for casual employees with a corresponding impact on pension and insurance benefits.

2. BACKGROUND

2.1. Client departments and separate employers are responsible for correctly identifying casual full-time and part-time employees when they are eligible to contribute to the Public Service pension plan, and for inputting this information into the RPS.

2.2. Currently, the Contributor System has the following two employee type codes for casual employees:

2.3. "K" Full-time casual employee

Employed under Section 50(2) of the Public Service Employment Act (PSEA) for a specified period of no more than 90 days. Works the scheduled hours of work as defined by the relevant collective agreement.

2.4. "L" Part-time casual employee

Employed under Section 50(2) of the PSEA for a specified period of no more than 90 days. Works less than the scheduled hours of work as defined by the relevant collective agreement.

3. POLICY

3.1. Section 50(2) of the new PSEA provides that "The period of employment of a casual worker may not exceed 90 working days in one calendar year in any particular department or other organization".

3.2. Under the Public Service Superannuation Act (PSSA), employees offered a part-time casual position of 12 hours or more per week, for an initial period that exceeds six months, are required to contribute to the Public Service pension plan from the date of appointment. However, compensation advisors have not always assigned the correct contributor status for this situation.

3.3. For example, a part-time casual employee initially hired for three days (22.5 hours) per week within this 90 working days limit would exceed the six month period and would qualify as a contributor to the Public Service pension plan from the date of appointment.

• Initial appointment April 14 to November 5, 2009, within 90 working days at 22.5 hours per week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

3.4. Other part-time casual employees not initially hired in excess of six months will not contribute to the Public Service pension plan until the six months qualifying period has been served.

3.5. In contrast is the erroneous practice of hiring full-time casual employees for a period in excess of six months. With the initial appointment restricted by the 90 working days limit, full-time casual employees do not meet the requirements to contribute to the Public Service pension plan until the six months qualifying period has been served.

3.6. The new edit messages aims to prevent these types of errors in the future by flagging potential inconsistencies upon input to the RPS and to ensure valid data is entered.

4. PROCEDURES/INSTRUCTIONS

4.1. Starting March 31, 2009, the compensation advisor is required to complete a new mandatory field at the bottom of the RPS screens when employee type code K or L (casual full-time or casual part-time) are input in field 31 for the following transactions:

• Taken on Strength (TOS) - Pay Action Code (PAC) 01
• Miscellaneous Staffing Action (MSA) - PAC 05

The new mandatory field will present the following text: "IS THE CASUAL EMPLOYEE ENTITLED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PSPP Y/N?". PSPP is the acronym for the Public Service pension plan. This new field will only be considered mandatory when the employee type code in field 31 entered on the TOS or MSA transaction is equal to K or L.

The new mandatory field will present the following text: "IS THE CASUAL EMPLOYEE ENTITLED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE PSPP Y/N?". PSPP is the acronym for the Public Service pension plan. This new field will only be considered mandatory when the employee type code in field 31 entered on the TOS or MSA transaction is equal to K or L.

4.2. When the answer to the question is yes, the RPS will ensure that the pension type code in field 39 corresponds as a contributor before assigning a transaction sequence number.

4.3. When the answer to the question is no, the RPS will ensure that the pension type code in field 39 corresponds as a non-contributor before assigning a transaction sequence number.

4.4. If the answer to the question does not correspond to the correct pension type code used, then the RPS will not allow the transaction to be created and will present the following relevant error messages: PDRA2 "PENSION TYPE CODE MUST BE CONTRIBUTORY" or PDRA3 "PENSION TYPE CODE MUST BE NON-CONTRIBUTORY". The compensation advisor will have to correct the data before proceeding.

4.5. Even though the MSA transaction may be used for casual employees for purposes other than to change the pension type status, compensation advisors will be required to complete the pension type code field39 in all cases for employee type K and L.

4.6. For batch/bulk input transactions, the new message WN4 "VERIFY PENSION TYPE CODE FOR CASUAL EMPLOYEE" will be produced as a warning on each of the above noted transactions. This new message will be produced in the departmental error analysis report.

4.7. For Government of Canada Pay Interface transactions, the new message WN4 "VERIFY PENSION TYPE CODE FOR CASUAL EMPLOYEE" will be produced as a warning on each of the above noted transactions. This new message will be displayed on the PeopleSoft application.

4.8. This directive should be read in conjunction with the Personnel-Pay Input Manual (PPIM), Section 3-5-3 (Instructions for Completing the Status Fields), which contains a listing of the pension type codes.

Note: The PPIM will be updated to incorporate the changes contained in this compensation directive.

5. INQUIRIES

5.1. Any inquiries on the information contained in this document should be addressed to your Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Compensation Services Office.

Original Signed by
B. Fortin

Brigitte Fortin
Director General
Compensation Sector
Accounting, Banking and Compensation

Reference(s): CJA 1010-23, 9015-10, 9203-5(1)(b)4