January 27, 2021

Follow-up to December 2020 Pay Period - Employee Contributions for State Disability Insurance (SDI) Program

Action Required by Department: Share the following information with all departmental human resources (HR) employees.

Description: On January 21, 2021, the State Controller’s Office (SCO) released communication to all departmental human resources (HR) offices notifying you that the increase of 0.2% for SDI was not withheld from employees’ December 2020 pay period income, issued January 1, 2021. For those employees impacted, SCO established an Agency Collection Accounts Receivable (A/R) for the December 2020 pay period, to withhold 0.2% for SDI.

We are asking HR offices to not take any collection steps at this time. We recognize the inconvenience this may cause to employees and the additional workload this may cause for departments, particularly with state staff working remotely. The SCO is partnering with the California Department of Human Resources to develop an alternative solution to recover the SDI under withholding . We will provide additional communication soon.

Population Affected: All Human Resources Offices

Contacts:

Statewide Customer Contact Center (916) 372-7200

HR Suggestions Email (All HR Staff) PPSDHRSuggestions@sco.ca.gov

CS Escalation Email (HR Supervisors and Managers) PPSDOps@sco.ca.gov

Cal Employee Connect Email connecthelp@sco.ca.gov

Cal Employee Connect Feedback Email connectfeedback@sco.ca.gov

SCO Key Initiatives:

Cal Employee Connect Project

CalATERS Replacement Project

California State Payroll System Project

Payroll Warrant Reminders

Action Required by Department: Share the following information with all departmental human resources (HR) and accounting office employees.

Description: See Payroll Warrant Reminders below:

Payroll Warrants that are mailed should not be folded. Please place them in an envelope that is large enough to accommodate the warrant size.

Departments should not release Payroll Warrants to employees early. Please refer to the CalHR Human Resources Manual, Timely Payment of Wages - Section 1703 and the State Administrative Manual (SAM) - Section 8580.2 for specific guidelines.

Please do not release the January 2021 Payroll Warrants until January 29, 2021, as instructed by your Departmental Accounting Office.

Encourage all employees to sign up for Direct Deposit. To assist departments in this effort, the Personnel and Payroll Services Division has created a Direct Deposit Communication Toolkit.

When mailing Payroll Warrants, include a Direct Deposit Enrollment Authorization (STD.699) in the envelope to encourage enrollment.

The approved retention schedule for personnel and payroll services requires retention of earnings statements (CD39As) for two months. With the implementation of Cal Employee Connect and suspension of direct deposit advice (DDA) printing by SCO, departments are encouraged to review their internal retention policies and appropriately handle or dispose of undelivered DDAs, as necessary. Please refer to the State Administrative Manual, Section 1615 and the Records Retention Handbook for more information.

Population Affected: All Human Resources Offices and Accounting Offices