STATE OF CONNECTICUT
NANCY WYMAN COMPTROLLER	OFFICE OF THE STATE COMPTROLLER 55 ELM STREET HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06106-1775	MARK OJAKIAN DEPUTY COMPTROLLER

MEMORANDUM NO. 2006-26

July 28, 2006

TO THE HEADS OF ALL STATE AGENCIES

I. AUTHORITY

Public Act 06-146 ensures that state employees who are called to active military service in the armed forces of any state or the United States for Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle, a related emergency operation, or a related emergency operation or military operation whose mission was substantially changed as a result of the attacks of September 11, 2001, or for federal action or state action authorized by the Governor in support of the federal Department of Homeland Security's Operation Liberty Shield, military operations that are authorized by the President of the United States that entail military action against Iraq, or federal action or state action authorized by the Governor to combat terrorism within the United States will continue to accrue all vacation and sick time that the employee would be entitled to if he or she had continued working in their state position during the time of active service.

II. NEW BENEFITS PROVIDED

Effective immediately, the following additional benefits are to be provided to employees as defined above, who are in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Noble Eagle and Operation Liberty Shield.

Vacation and Sick Accruals - State employees who have been activated in the military will continue to accrue all vacation and sick leave time to which the employee would be entitled if he or she had continued working in his or her state position during the time of such active service. This benefit will be applied retroactively to all state employees who have been activated in the military as defined above.

In order to qualify, an employee must have been called to active duty for participation in a qualifying operation. Employees taking military leave for training or other military activations not related to the subject conflict would not qualify for the additional benefits.

The earned time accrual benefit cannot be applied to those employees who have reached the maximum accruals as per the State Personnel Act and Collective Bargaining Agreements.

If an eligible employee has retired prior to this benefit, any additional accrual time may impact their service credit. The former employing agency should contact the Retirement & Benefit Services Division with any questions.

Unions are being contacted by the Office of Labor Relations regarding PA 06-146 and the benefits affecting members of their bargaining unit.

III. PROCEDURES

Agencies will need to calculate the vacation and sick time due to employees who have been activated in the military (as defined in Section I) and credit the leave balances with the vacation and sick accruals that the employee did not receive while out on military leave. The Comptrollers Office will provide a list of military employees to those specific agencies.

The dates prior to the inception of Core-CT will have to be calculated manually with information from the BOSS Time and Attendance System or any other system the agency used to track employee accrued time. The BOSS System is still available for reporting by agency individually. The agency needs to gather the military time, and then manually calculate the accruals owed to these employees and make the balance adjustment in the current cycle in Core-CT.

The Core-CT HRMS team is establishing procedures that will allow the system to continue to accrue the affected employee's vacation and sick time. Agencies will be notified by a Core-CT Daily Mail when these become available.

It should be noted that while the intent of legislation is to allow agencies some time to implement these new benefits, agencies should begin discussions for these affected employees as soon as possible.

IV. GENERAL INFORMATION

Employees with questions as to whether they are eligible to receive the benefits should contact their Agency Human Resources Office.

Questions concerning this memorandum should be directed to the Fiscal Policy Division at (860) 702-3440.

Questions concerning payroll procedures should be directed to the Payroll Division at (860) 702-3463.

Questions concerning retirement impact procedures should be directed to the Retirement & Benefit Services Division at (860) 702-3511.

NANCY WYMAN
STATE COMPTROLLER

NW: CM

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