UAMS ADMINISTRATIVE GUIDE

NUMBER: 4.2.08
DATE: 09/01/00
REVISION: 07/01/07

PURPOSE
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recognizes its employees who have completed ten or more years of service. The purpose of this policy is to inform all departments within UAMS of information concerning the career service recognition bonus award for its employees.
POLICY
UAMS follows the guidelines established in State law1 and policies of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)² for awarding annual bonus payments to staff employees based on ten or more years of service to the State of Arkansas. All non-faculty employees, Classified, Non-Classified Patient Care, Administrative, and non-tenure track academic, are eligible for the bonus, payable yearly on their anniversary date for service in a regular full-time position on the following basis:

All periods of full-time service in non-faculty positions will be counted, including:

• service at other State agencies and institutions
• periods of authorized leave where no break in service occurred
• leave for military service where re-employment rights were exercised
• periods of "lay off" or reduction in force due to financial reasons and where the employee resumed service within one year, and
• partial years of service

Service in a student or temporary position, service as a resident or service in a post doctoral fellow or a tenure-track faculty position is excluded from the years -of-service calculation.

 Payments under this program are subject to withholding of Federal, State, and FICA taxes. Normal deductions to the University’s optional retirement program are made, where applicable; bonus amounts are not included in formulas for calculating retirement benefits under PERS.³

The Office of Human Resources (OHR) is responsible for verifying the length of service in full-time positions, for authorizing and paying amounts as stated, and for maintaining records.

General instructions for the use of SAP/HR (Infotype 0050) are found in the manual “Personnel Administration for Department Users”, at the UAMS Enterprise website. Specific information about Career Bonus process is found in the BPP, “Career Service Bonus and Reporting”, also at the enterprise website.  See http://intranet.uams.edu/enterprise/

PROCEDURE

1. OHR will verify service from computerized reports of those initially eligible employees, according to the "adjusted date of State service" in their anniversary month. A "Career Service Date" will be established.                                                   
2. A program for Career Service Bonus payments is run each month in Human Resources: this produces a “wage type” of “1027” which can be seen on infotype “One-Time Payments Off-Cycle (infotype 0267), found on infotype 0000 “Display HR Master Data”, under the tab “Payroll Data”.  A history of payments can be viewed by clicking the “mountain” icon for “overview”.                                               
3. Payment is made by a separate check or direct deposit, which are distributed to the employee through normal department payroll distribution near the end of each month.                                                                                                 

4. Bonus payments are charged to a UAMS account when the employee is paid from State Funds (111 or 113).  Expense for employees paid from other funds is charged to the normal “cost distribution” found on infotype 0027 at the time of the payment.  Employees paid by a mix of “state” and “other” funds will be paid initially from the 0027 cost distribution, with a Budget Office credit back to the department budget for 111 and 113 funds charged to the department.                             
5. Employees inadvertently omitted from the Bonus payroll will be paid on the next bonus payroll cycle.                                                                                                                
6. Questions regarding Career Service Recognition Bonus Payments should be addressed to OHR at 686-5650.

REFERENCES

1 Act 882 of 1989, Act 556 of 1991, and Act 386

2 AHRMS, OPM Policy, Section 150

3 UAMS Policy 4.1.06, Disability Insurance