Advisory Memorandum No. 2002-04

Section 21.12 Leaves Required by Law or Negotiated Agreement - September 2002

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TO: Manual Holders
FROM: William Doyle
SUBJECT: Impact on Overtime Compensation of Placement on Training Leave at Reduced Pay for Military Duty Not Related to the Events of September 11, 2001

A question has been raised about the impact on overtime compensation of retroactive placement on Training Leave at Reduced Pay for events not related to the events of September 11, 2001.

Under the Overtime Compensation Rules of the Director of the Budget, absences charged to leave credits and leave at full pay, like time worked, count toward meeting the 40-hr threshold in a workweek to be paid at the overtime (time-and-a-half) rate for hours worked over 40, but leave at less than full pay does not count toward that threshold. Therefore, time on Training Leave at Reduced Pay does not count toward meeting that 40-hour threshold.

The Training Leave at Reduced Pay benefit permits an eligible employee to elect to retroactively be placed on Training Leave at Reduced Pay for covered absences. This may impact the employee's eligibility to receive overtime compensation for workweeks in which this occurs.

For example:
In one workweek, an eligible employee on a 40-hour workweek previously charged one day of military duty for training to vacation credits, worked the remaining four days and also worked 12 hours outside his basic workweek. The charge to vacation credits counted toward meeting the 40-hour threshold for overtime pay so the 12 hours were compensated at the time-and-a-half overtime rate.

When the Training Leave at Reduced Pay benefit became available, the employee elected to be retroactively placed on Training Leave at Reduced Pay for the day of military duty previously charged to leave credits. The employee banks the day of vacation and his salary for that day is adjusted from full pay to reduced pay.

In addition, since the day on reduced pay does not count toward meeting the 40-hour threshold for overtime pay, the employee is entitled to 8 hours of straight time and 4 hours of overtime at the time-and-a-half rate (instead of 12 hours of overtime pay) for the additional 12 hours worked in that workweek. Therefore, the employee now owes the difference between 8 hours at the time-and-a-half rate and 8 hours at the straight time rate. The Office of the State Comptroller will advise agencies how to handle such overpayments.

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The same principle applies to employees on a 37.5 hour workweek who earn overtime compensatory time for hours worked between 37.5 and 40. Leave at reduced pay does not count toward meeting the 37.5 hour threshold to earn overtime compensatory time.

It is critical that you review any requests for retroactive placement on Training Leave at Reduced Pay to ascertain whether there will be an impact on overtime compensation (both overtime compensatory time and overtime pay). If there will be such an impact, affected employees should be notified and given the opportunity to withdraw their election if they choose to do so.

As described in Advisory Memorandum No. 2002-03, dated May 2002, once employees go on Training Leave at Reduced Pay, they may not charge credits for subsequent covered absences in 2002 until their entitlement to Training Leave at Reduced Pay is exhausted. Therefore, employees who elected to be placed on Training Leave at Reduced Pay and worked overtime in intermittent pay periods after the date on which the benefit was first applied do not have the option to cancel application of the benefit for selected pay periods in order to preserve overtime payments they have already received.

Furthermore, please ensure that employees electing prospective placement on Training Leave at Reduced Pay understand the impact that election will have on their eligibility for overtime compensation.

Any questions should be directed to the Attendance and Leave Unit of this Department at (518) 457-2295.

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