| To: | Fiscal Officers and HR/Payroll Staff |
| Subject: | Payroll Processing Requirements During a Furlough |
| Sent Date: | 12/09/2008 |
With the recent announcement by the Governor requiring additional fiscal year 2009 funds to be held back, some agencies are requiring employees to take a furlough.
The Division of Statewide Payroll continues to receive furlough questions with regards to payroll reporting situations. The list below contains tools and reminders that should be kept in mind while contemplating a furlough.
- In order to help agencies track these furlough hours, a new earnings code (LWF) has been added to the SCO payroll system for ‘Furloughed Time Off’. This code is now available for use. All hours taken as ‘furlough’ should be coded on the employee’s time sheet as ‘LWF’. This includes employees on Family Medical Leave. Coding and processing this earnings code will allow agencies to retrieve and analyze reports regarding the furlough. It is not necessary to adjust prior pay period information.
Note to agencies using I-Time: The agency CPO (Central Payroll Officer) must complete the following steps in order for the new ‘LWF’ earnings code to appear in the dropdown box when entering time:
- Go into ‘Time Code Maintenance’;
- Click the ‘Reset’ button at the top of the screen;
- Find the new ‘LWF’ earnings code and click the ‘Timesheet Enabled’ box;
- Then click ‘Save’.
- Idaho Code 59-1007 states that “Unless otherwise provided by law, every officer must keep his office open for transaction of business from eight (8) o’clock a.m. until five (5) o’clock p.m., each day except upon Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.” Therefore, if the furlough is designated to be date specific, some employees are still required to work.
Such employees must code all hours worked on that date. If it is necessary for all employees of the agency to participate in the furlough, these employees would simply take the furloughed hours off on a different specified date.
- The pay policies of the offices of State Controller and State Treasurer will not allow payroll warrants/checks to be redeemed prior to the actual pay date (settlement date). Because many employees may be asked to take their furlough around the Christmas holiday, including December 26th, which is a pay date, employees should be reminded of this policy.
Should any employee deposit or cash their payroll warrant/check prior to the settlement date, those funds will be rejected and the employee will be responsible for any and all fees charged by the financial institution. To avoid this type of situation, employees should be encouraged to participate in Direct Deposit.
More information on the Direct Deposit process is available via the DSP Personnel/Payroll User Manual.
- As a further note, please remember that it is extremely important to have adequate personnel available throughout the holiday season to make sure all employees have been paid correctly and the W-2 will be accurate.
If you have questions regarding payroll actions and processing, please contact the DSP Helpdesk at 334-2394 or by e-mail at DSPHelp@sco.idaho.gov .
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