ARCHIVED CD 2008-012

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May 8, 2008

SUBJECT: Changes to Reason Codes for Certain Types of Leave Without Pay

1. PURPOSE

1.1 The purpose of this directive is to provide information concerning a new data input field for certain transactions and additional automation to the Regional Pay System (RPS) for certain types of leave without pay (LWOP).

2. BACKGROUND

2.1 As part of the ongoing preparation for Pension Modernization, projects are underway to ensure that all data currently resident in the existing systems is as accurate as possible.

2.2 In 2005, a team was assembled to review the contributions being made to the fund and to identify situations causing incorrect contributions to be calculated.

2.3 This review has revealed that there is a requirement to amend the LWOP reason code for leave types that have specific time limits, such as maternity leave, parental leave and personal needs leave under three months. Transactions to record the changes are often not being updated to the RPS and Contributor System (CS). This means that deficiencies may be or appear to be under or over recovered.

3. POLICY

3.1 Treasury Board policy and various collective agreements impose limits on the time that may be used for certain types of LWOP. Until now, the responsibility to make the required changes to the LWOP reason codes in the RPS has rested entirely with the compensation advisor.

3.2 Service credits, contributions to the Public Service Pension Fund, and the five-year maximum pensionable LWOP in a contributor's career, are all determined based, in part, on the reason codes recorded for the various periods of LWOP. Therefore, it is critical that the proper reason codes are recorded in the RPS salary service subsystem and the CS.

3.3 Since most LWOP reason codes do not have specific time limits, it is still essential for compensation advisors to monitor accounts on all types of LWOP and to take the appropriate action, where necessary, to ensure that the system is kept up to date.

3.4 A complete list of LWOP reason codes can be found in the Personnel-Pay Input Manual (PPIM) Section 4-4-13.

4. PROCEDURES/INSTRUCTIONS

4.1 Presently, the process of ensuring that reason codes are changed in the RPS requires that the compensation advisor report a status change to the "Reason for LWOP" field (STA or 12A 109) each time a change is required. For those types of LWOP for which there is a mandated time limit, the system will automatically determine the correct date and generate the change of LWOP reason code.

NOTE: Compensation advisors will still be able to create the necessary transactions to amend LWOP reason codes in the usual way. This new procedure is to ensure that, in cases where proper procedures were not followed, the account is being updated prior to the calculation of contribution deficiencies, wherever possible.

4.2. MATERNITY AND PARENTAL LEAVE

4.2.1 In the case of maternity leave without pay, the date of birth or adoption of the child is critical to determine the eighteen weeks provided to an employee who becomes pregnant or is adopting a child.

The date of birth or adoption of the child is also necessary to determine the fifty-two weeks allowed for parental leave within or beyond fifty-two weeks after the birth or adoption of a child.

4.2.2 In order to allow the system to automatically change the reason codes for these types of LWOP, it was necessary to create a new element in the RPS (Element 120) to capture the date of birth or adoption of the child.

When creating "retaken on strength" (RE- TOS; Pay Action Code (PAC)14), "struck off strength" (SOS ; PAC 02) or "status change" (STA; 12A 109) transactions, there will now be a requirement to enter the date of birth/adoption information when the LWOP reason code currently in the system is "K", "R", "S", "3", or "5". Where an account is on LWOP for one of these reasons and this field is left blank, the transaction will reject with the message: PDR81 Date of Birth/adoption of child mandatory for LWOP reason K, R, S, 3, or 5.

4.2.3 Changes have been made to the on-line screens for these transactions to add a new input field entitled "Date of Birth (DOB)/adoption of a child" on the RET and SOS. A new field entitled "Amend DOB /adoption of a child" has been added to the STA screen. For batch input, this new information is to be entered in Field 69 of the PWGSC-TPSGC 2549 form and must be left justified. The format of the DOB/adoption of child is to be "DDMMYY".

4.2.4 A new field has been added to the on-line inquiry "PER" screen entitled "DOB/adoption of a child". In the case of a second or subsequent birth or adoption, the most recent date input to the system will be displayed.

4.2.5 When any of these transactions are processed in the RPS, the system will verify the time from the date of birth or adoption and, where necessary, generate a STA (12A109) transaction to amend the reason codes as follows:

Where the reason code on the RPS reads "K", the system will determine when eighteen weeks have elapsed from the date of birth or adoption, and generate a STA (12A109) to amend the reason code to "R".

Where the reason code for LWOP is "R", "S", or "5", the RPS will verify when fifty-two weeks have elapsed and generate a STA (12A109) transaction to amend the reason code to a "3".

Whenever the RPS generates an STA (12A109) transaction, a warning message will be sent to the client to advise of the change and to request verification of the LWOP reason code that was generated by the RPS. The message is: WT1 12A109 generated - verify reason for LWOP code.

4.2.6 Where a date of birth or adoption has been input incorrectly and the compensation advisor is inputting a change to this field to the RPS, it will be necessary to verify the date of the change of LWOP reason code in the salary service subsystem. Refer to PPIM Section 8.1 for instructions on how to correct the change of LWOP reason code, if necessary.

4.2.7 Because the "Date of birth/Adoption of the child" is now being captured in the RPS, it will no longer be necessary for compensation advisors to input this information in free form text (FFT).

4.3. PERSONAL NEEDS LEAVE NOT EXCEEDING THREE MONTHS

4.3.1 Where an employee has proceeded on a period of personal needs leave not exceeding three months and does not return to work at the end of that period, it is necessary to record a new reason for the continuing LWOP. This can be either a period of personal needs leave of up to one year (reason code "L") or another reason (i.e. sick leave without pay, maternity or parental leave, or other).

4.3.2 When creating "RE-TOS" (PAC 14), "SOS" (PAC 02) or "STA" (12A109) transactions for accounts on personal needs leave not exceeding three months, the RPS will determine the end of the three month period from the start date of the LWOP and where necessary, generate a transaction to change the LWOP reason code to an "L" where the total period is in excess of three months.

The system will generate the following warning message to compensation advisors to advise them of the change and to request verification of the LWOP reason code generated by the RPS: WT1 12A109 generated - verify reason for LWOP code

Where the reason code is other than "L", compensation advisors must complete a STA (12A109) transaction to change the code to the correct reason, while ensuring that the use of "T" is restricted to no more than three months leave.

4.4 The changes to the on-line screens and the generation of the STA (12A109) transactions was updated to the RPS on April 1, 2008. All accounts currently on any of these types of LWOP will automatically be updated as their status changes.

Historic accounts will be reconciled in the usual way through the Pay and Pension Data Correction Project, where incorrect codes cause a reconciliation error, or by compensation advisors during routine account maintenance.

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 9006-24-8; 9027-14; 9031-8