Status Change Transaction

The Status Change (STS) transaction is used to report all employee status changes.

Not all available fields in the STS transaction need to be filled when making a status change to one piece of data. Please see examples below

The Effective To Date of a Status Change Transaction is very important; it can either be filled to provide an end date to the status change or it can be left blank to overwrite the data from the Effective From Date onward.

On this page

• Effective From Date
• Change in Employee Type and/or Pension Type
• Adding Qualifying Service
• Multiple Changes
• Change in Hours of Work
• Non Standard Work Week Change
• Amending a Taken on Strength (TOS) Date
• Amending a Struck off Strength (SOS) Date
• Extension of Employment

Effective From Date

Penfax will reject all transactions (TOS (Taken on Strength), SOS (Struck off Strength), STS) if the Effective From Date is greater than 30 days from the date you upload the file.

Example 1

• Status Change - November 1, 2010
• Upload to Data Capture Tool - October 1, 2010

Since there are more than 30 days between October 1, 2010 and November 1, 2010, this will generate an error in Penfax.

Example 2

• Status Change - December 1, 2010
• Upload to Data Capture Tool - November 24, 2010

Since there are less than 30 days between November 24, 2010 and December 1, 2010, this will then post to Penfax.

Change in Employee Type and/or Pension Type

A STS transaction must be done when there is a change in the employee type and/or pension type.

For example: if the employee’s term/casual position is extended or changed to an indeterminate position.

If employee is being extended with no change in employee type or pension type, then no input is required.

Example 1 – Change in pension type and/or employee type

• Employee is hired from March 1st, 2011 to May 31, 2011

  A TOS transaction with employee type G (Full Time Term - Specified period equal to or greater than three months but less than six months) and pension type 53 (Term/Casual ≤ 6 mths, F/T - P/T ≥ 12 hrs not grandfathered) are required, along with a salary (SAL) transaction.

• Employee is extended from June 1st, 2011 to June 30, 2011 with no change in hours or salary since TOS

  No transaction is required as there is no change in employee type, pension type, salary or SWW/AWW (Standard Work Week / Assigned Work Week).

• Employee is extended from July 1st, 2011 to November 30, 2011 with no change in hours or salary since TOS

  A STS transaction with an Effective From Date of September 1st, 2011 is required to change the pension type from 53 (Term/Casual ≤ 6 mths, F/T - P/T ≥ 12 hrs not grandfathered) to 01 (Service < 35 years Assigned Work Week (AWW ≥ 12 hours) since member as become a contributor) No change in employee type.

  Note: If you participate in the SDB plan, a status change to the SDB field from “No” to “Yes” is also required. Amend Disability Insurance (DI) if applicable.

• Employee becomes indeterminate on October 1st, 2011 with a change in salary and hours of work

  A STS transaction with an Effective From Date of October 1st, 2011 is required to change the employee type from G to A and a SAL transaction is required to change the salary and the SWW/AWW.

Example 2 – Change in employee type

• Employee is hired from January 1st, 2011 to March 31st, 2011

  A TOS transaction and a SAL transaction with an Effective From Date of January 1st, 2011 with employee type G (Full Time Term - Specified period equal to or greater than three months but less than six months) and pension type 53 (Term/Casual ≤ 6 mths, F/T - P/T ≥ 12 hrs not grandfathered) are required.

• Employee is extended from April 1st, 2011 to March 31st, 2012 with no change in hours of work or salary since TOS

  A STS transaction with an Effective From Date of April 1st, 2011 is required to change the employee type from G (Full Time Term - Specified period equal to or greater than three months but less than six months) to S (Full Time Term - Specified period of more than six months) and the pension type from 53 to 01.

  Note: If you participate in the SDB plan, a status change to the SDB field from “No” to “Yes” is also required. Amend Disability Insurance (DI) if applicable.

• Employee becomes indeterminate on July 15th, 2011 with a change in salary and hours of work

  A STS transaction effective July 15th, 2011 is required to change the employee type from S (Full Time Term - Specified period of more than six months) to A (Full Time Indeterminate). A SAL transaction is required to change the salary and SWW/AWW. There is no change required to the pension type since it continues as pension type 01/31 (Service < 35 years Assigned Work Week (AWW ≥ 12 hours)).

Example 3 – Change in pension type

Employee reaches 35 years of service. Upon receipt of notification from the Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Pension Centre, a STS transaction is required to change the pension type from 01/31 (Service < 35 years Assigned Work Week (AWW ≥ 12 hours)) to 03/33 (Service > 35 years (1% contribution)) effective the date provided on the notification. The employee type does not change.

Adding qualifying service

Steps to add qualifying service

The TOS transaction should always be done as soon as the employee is hired with the organization regardless of their employment status (including terms of less than 6 months, casual employees and “as required” (on call) employees).

If a TOS transaction is only completed once the member becomes a contributor, without reporting the attached qualifying service, the following steps are required:

• Status Change input #1 - to back-date the TOS to include the qualifying service:
  • Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
  • ERN: (if applicable to organization)
  • Paylist
  • Effective From Date: original TOS date reported - DOC
  • Effectice From Date AM/PM Indicator: original data reported with TOS
  • TOS Date: TOS date of qualifying service
  • TOS Date AM/PM Indicator: AM/PM indicator of qualifying service
• Status Change input #2 - to correct the Pension Type and Employee Type for the qualifying service:
  • Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
  • ERN: (if applicable to organization)
  • Paylist
  • Effective From Date: TOS date of the Qualifying Service
  • Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
  • Effective To Date: Last day of Qualifying Service
  • Effective To AM/PM Indicator
  • Pension Type: 53
  • Employee Type: E or F or G or H, etc.
  • SDB Eligibility: 2 - Not Eligible
• Status Change input #3 - to correct the Pension Type and Employee Type for the contributory service - DOC:
  • Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
  • ERN: (if applicable to organization)
  • Paylist
  • Effective From Date: DOC date
  • Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
  • Pension Type: 01
  • Employee Type: (correct only if needed)
  • SDB Eligibility: 1 – Eligible (if applicable to organization)

Steps to amend service from qualifying to contributor

When the TOS transaction is completed when the employee is hired, regardless of their employment status (including terms of less than 6 months, casual employees and “as required” (on call) employees), the following inputs are required to change the employee from qualifying status to contributor status once the member has reached contributor status.

Important: the Pension Solution does not automatically change an employee from qualifying to contributor once the member has reached 6 months of qualifying; the following inputs are required in the DCT.

• Status Change (one transaction):
  • Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
  • ERN: (if applicable to organization)
  • Paylist
  • Effective From Date: DOC date
  • Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
  • Pension Type: 01
  • Employee Type: (correct only if needed)
  • SDB Eligibility: 1 – Eligible (if applicable to organization)

Common input error: When a status change is required, the Effective From Date and Effective To Date determine the period for which you are requesting the field(s) to be changed in the transaction. Instead of inputting a date in the Effective From Date and Effective To Date, a date is often entered in the Effective From Date and in the TOS field. By inputting a date in the TOS field, the system reads that the TOS needs to be amended and therefore the input will change the TOS date instead of processing the Status change.

Steps to amend the pension type and employee type

A status change transaction will only amend the field(s) in question for the period indicated with the Effective From Date and Effective To Date; it will not amend fields prior to or after the period in question.

• Status Change (one transaction):
  • Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
  • ERN: (if applicable to organization)
  • Paylist
  • Effective From Date: date the change occurred
  • Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
  • Effective To Date: only update if there is an end date - can be left blank if open ended; use an end date if you have a specific period of time you need to change
  • Effective To Date AM/PM Indicator
  • Pension Type
  • Employee Type

Common input error: if an employee is working part-time (employee type B) from 02-Apr-2006 to 28-Mar-2013 and a status change is required to amend the employee type to full-time (employee type A) from 21-Feb-2012 to 24-Feb-2012, the above transaction will only update the employee type for those 4 days. A subsequent Status change is often processed thinking the employee type needs to be amended to part-time (employee type B) again effective 25-Feb-2012; this transaction is not required, the status change to part time only amended the employee type between the Effective From and Effective To Dates of the transaction.

Steps to amend a Personal Record Identifier

If a TOS transaction was sent with the incorrect PRI, the EMP file will have the incorrect PRI number and therefore any subsequent transaction with the correct PRI will reject until the following Status Change transaction is processed.

• Status Change (one transaction):
  • Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
  • ERN: (if applicable to organization)
  • Paylist
  • Effective From Date: today's date
  • Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
  • New PRI: Input the correct PRI number

Multiple Changes

• Report one STS transaction for multiple changes if the Effective From Date is the same

  Example: Name change, marital status and province of residence can all be completed on one STS transaction

• Report separate STS transactions if the Effective From Date is not the same

Change in Hours of Work

All change in hours need to be reported as this may have an impact on the employee's eligibility to contribute. If the Employee Type changes as a result of the AWW/SWW change, a STS transaction will also be required to amend the Employee Type.

Change in Hours must be reported by doing a STS transaction or a SAL transaction, as shown here:

Example using the Status Change transaction

The employee changes from a full-time indeterminate position to a part-time indeterminate position with a change in hours of work from 37.5 to 30 per week with no change in salary.

• Enter a STS transaction to change:
  • Employee Type A (Full Time Indeterminate) to Employee Type B (Part Time Indeterminate)
  • Assigned Work Week from 37.50 to 30.00

Example using the Salary transaction

The AWW/SWW were entered incorrectly and posted to Penfax for the period from 2010/02/18 to 2010/04/28. The hours of work reported were 30 hours per week when it should have been 25 hours per week with no change in the employee type.

• Modifier Code: C (commence):
  • Salary Type: (mandatory, must match original)
  • Effective From Date: 2010/02/18 – AM/PM indicator (1 or 2)
  • Effective To Date: 2010/04/28 – AM/PM indicator (1 or 2)
  • Salary amount: 45,000
  • Standard Work Week: 37.50
  • Assigned Work Week: 25.00

Note: The hours (AWW and SWW) are always required with a salary transaction and need to match the employee type. If the pension solution has employee type B (part-time indeterminate) and the salary transaction has 37.50/37.50, this will cause posting errors; an STS change to the employee type is required prior to the salary transaction to avoid errors.

Non Standard Work Week Change

Changes to the Non-Standard Work Week (NSWW) field must be reported by doing a SAL transaction, as shown here (Note: This change cannot be reported by doing a Status Change).

The NSWW was entered incorrectly and posted to Penfax for the period from 2010/02/18 to 2010/04/28. The field was entered as code 1 (Yes, employee works a Non standard work week) when it should have been entered as a code 2 (No, employee works a Standard work week).

• Modifier Code: C (commence):
  • Salary Type: (mandatory, must match original)
  • Effective From Date: 2010/02/18 – AM/PM indicator (1 or 2)
  • Effective To Date: 2010/04/28 – AM/PM indicator (1 or 2)
  • Salary amount: 45,000
  • Standard Work Week (SWW): 37.50
  • Assigned Work Week (AWW): 37.50
  • Non Standard Work Week (NSWW): 2

Amending a Taken on Strength Date

To change the Effective From Date of a previous TOS, an STS transaction is required with the following inputs:

• Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
• ERN: (if applicable to organization)
• Paylist
• Effective From Date field: the originally reported TOS date (YYYY/MM/DD)
• Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
• Input the new date in the TOS Date field. (YYYY/MM/DD)
• input the AM/PM indicator in the TOS Date AM/PM Indicator field

If a new TOS input is done, it will not override the incorrect TOS date. Instead, this will cause a duplicate TOS on the member’s account and subsequent data will not be able to post to the account.

If a TOS needs to be removed, an SOS transaction using the same date as the TOS date (that needs to be removed) is required; this will remove the line of service on the account.

Amending a Struck off Strength Date

Report a STS transaction is required to change the Effective From Date of a previous SOS. The following inputs are required in the status screen:

• Personal Record Identifier (PRI)
• ERN: (if applicable to organization)
• Paylist
• Effective From Date: the originally reported SOS date (YYYY/MM/DD)
• Effective From Date AM/PM Indicator
• Pay SOS Date: the correct SOS date (YYYY/MM/DD)
• Pay SOS Date AM/PM indicator

Note: If you are amending an SOS date to a future date, ensure to any missing salary, LWOP or contribution data. If you are amending an SOS date to a previous date, you will need to delete any salary, LWOP and contributions that have been posted on the account between the old and new SOS date (otherwise the status change transaction will reject in Penfax).

Example

• SOS date of 01-Apr-2014 is amended to 01-Feb-2014
• Salary: Account shows from 01-Jan-2014 to 31-Mar-2014:
  • Delete salary from 01-Jan-2014 to 31-Mar-2014
  • Commence salary from 01-Jan-2014 to 31-Jan-2014
• Contributions: contributions taken in error will need to refunded to the member and entered as a negative on the account
• LWOP: delete if applicable

Extension of Employment

If the employee's term/casual position is extended or changed to an indeterminate position, report a STS transaction with all appropriate fields completed. Note: if employee is being extended with no change in employee type or pension type, then no input is required.