[pps-news] Minutes- PPS Users Group Meeting, June 10, 2009

Fri Jun 12 17:01:21 PDT 2009

PPS Users,

Minutes - PPS Users group meeting on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 @ HMNSS
1500 at 10:00 - 11:30 am.  

1.      New Cell Phone Policy - Gabe Nwandu

The University of California implemented a new cell phone policy
effective with June 2009 earnings paid July 1, 2009.  This change is in
response to recent payroll audits conducted by IRS at UCLA and UCSD.
The current law requires the value of employer provided cell phone
services be  included in the employee's gross income and taxed unless
the employee keeps a detailed record of the calls classified as business
or personal.  The value of the personal calls are supposed to be paid
back to the employer.  The University has decided to treat employer
provided cell phone or cell-phone enabled PDA as taxable fringe benefit
because the substantiation rules are not practical.

Effective June 1, 2009, the cost of an employee's cell phone plan,
including the cost of the device will be added to the employee's taxable
earnings each month as "imputed" income subject to withholding.  The
employee will receive a taxable cash allowance (funded by departments)
each month to reimburse him or her for the tax on the imputed income.
The cash allowance will be increased using the IRS gross-up formula due
to the tax withholdings associated with it.

Please logon to this web page for the campus policy and procedures
associated with cell phones: 
http://www.accounting.ucr.edu/cellphone.htm. This page can also be
accessed through the Accounting office web site: 
http://www.accounting.ucr.edu/index.html.

2.      E-Verify Update - Gabe Nwandu

A federal law issued on November 14, 2008 mandated that all federal
contractors including institutions of higher education verify the
'identity' and 'employment eligibility' of all new employees within
three days of hire for all federal contracts and sub-contracts with the
E-Verify clause.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the
Social Security Administration (SSA) established an electronic system
called "E-Verify" to assist employers in doing this.  This rule was
originally slated for implementation on January 15, 2009, but the US
Chamber of Commerce sued the Federal Government challenging this
executive order signed by President Bush in June 2008.  The court has
since postponed the implementation date to May 21, 2009, June 30, 2009
and more recently to September 8, 2009.   

UCR has centralized this function within the Academic Personnel and
Payroll Offices.  The Payroll/Personnel System (PPS) will soon be
modified to add the following fields to implement E-Verify.

*         E-Verify Status Code (screen EPD2, IGEN, HPER)

*         E-Verify Status Date (screen EPD2, HPER)

Research Affairs office will be responsible to identify the funds which
have the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clause.  Covered Contracts
will include awards that are above $100,000 and the performance period
in the United States is longer than 120 days.  Subcontracts with a
$3,000 value related to a prime contract with E-verify clause for
services or construction are also included.  PPS will look at the FAR
clause and determine if an employee will be E-verified.  A report of all
employees identified by PPS to be E-verified will be used by Academic
Personnel to perform this task.  The Payroll Office will use the
confirmation notice received from the E-Verify system to update PPS.  

After September 8, 2009, federal agencies will start amending contracts
to include the FAR clause .  Once a contract has been amended, new hires
meeting the E-Verify requirements must be E-Verified within 3 days and
90 days for existing employees.  A positive confirmation allows the
employee to continue working.  A 'Tentative Non-Confirmation' by either
SSA or DHS will require the employee to contest the response and this
process may take 4-6 weeks.  The employee will be allowed to continue
working until a final positive/negative confirmation notice is received.

Additional information will be distributed to you as soon as we are
closer to implementation.  Please direct all questions/concerns to 
gabe.nwandu at ucr.edu.

3.      Retirement 2009 -Lecturers - Rehired Retirees - Theron Lyon

*         The retirement date for 2009 is June 29th if selecting COLA
and June 30th if not selecting COLA.

*         Summer Lecturers  are eligible to maintain their current
UC-Sponsored health and welfare benefits for up to three consecutive
months (the "Benefits Bridge Period").  They must satisfy the following
conditions:

o   1st day prior to commencement of benefits bridge period, they are a
member of a UC group health insurance plan.

o   They have a written commitment for reemployment at the end of the
bridge period.

o   Pay the regular group plan rate for the entire gross benefits
premium (employee plus UC cost) and pay in advance each month directly
to the campus payroll office.

o   Standard benefits eligibility rules apply during bridge period.

Payroll will be sending letters to notify these employees of their
options

*         There are new guidelines for Rehired Retirees.  Please see the
attached information.

4.      Federal Work Study Student Coding - Roberta Nardico

Effective FY 2009/10, the work study allocation will be placed in BC28
instead of BC25.  Therefore, all pay distributions for student employees
on work study should be added or changed to account code 504120 instead
of 500120. 

5.      Summer Session - Roberta Nardico

A reminder was made not to separate employees in Summer Session.  The
link for this listing is:  
http://www.accounting.ucr.edu/documents/sumappts09.xls.

6.      Web New Hire Project - Jasmine Mejia

Jasmine has provided the link for the Web New Hire Project website.   It
is:  http://ucop-new-hire.heroku.com/.   The project is continuing and
is estimated to be ready in October.  She encouraged PPS Users to access
the link and see the development.

7.      Exception to APM 600.14, Additional Compensation - Karen Hruby

Karen Hruby notified the group that there is a new form for requesting
exceptions to additional compensation for Fiscal-Year Faculty Only.
Please see the attached form.

8.      AYSO Direct Deposit Project - Roberta Nardico

Roberta spoke briefly about the AYSO Direct Deposit Project.   UCR is
one of the campuses that will be piloting this project.  Each employee
will be able to manage their direct deposit enrollment and/or changes in
AYSO whenever they want.   This project is expected to be in place
around September or October this year.

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