HR News Updates | January 2018

The campus will be closed on Monday, January 15, 2018 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr Day.

Two new important California employment laws became effective January 1, 2018, impacting recruitment procedures and effecting an update to the CSU Background Check Policy.  If you are involved in recruitment and hiring matters, please read the following:

• Assembly Bill 168

AB 168 prohibits State and local government employers from asking applicants about prior salary history.  As such, search committees, hiring managers, and anyone involved in the recruitment process, may no longer request salary history information.  Additionally, all employment applications used for student and/or faculty hiring must be updated to remove all questions related to salary history.  Human Resources is currently updating the staff/management electronic employment application to remove all questions related to salary history.

The law also stipulates that employers must be prepared to provide the pay scale for a position to an applicant for employment upon reasonable request.  We currently do post the hiring range for all staff positions.

• Assembly Bill 1008

AB 1008 prohibits employers from inquiring or considering conviction history until after a conditional offer of employment has been made.   As such, the Chancellor’s Office has updated the CSU background check policy accordingly.  Additionally, we have updated our CSUN background check procedures and packages to allow for conditional offers of employment to be made prior to the initiation of background checks.

Please note: Effective immediately, an offer of employment must clearly state that the “appointment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check and may be rescinded if the background check reveals disqualifying information and/or it is discovered that the candidate knowingly withheld or falsified information.”  The policy does specify that all background checks (employment, education, reference, and criminal) must be completed before an appointment is finalized and the candidate begins work.

This new law does not apply to positions where a criminal background check is required by law, including any position with a university law enforcement agency.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mika Williamson, Director of Recruitment Services and Compensation at Mika.Williamson@csun.edu or x 3817.

The 2018 Health Plan Rates are available on the Benefits Administration webpage. Please remember to check your January pay warrant for your premium deduction and report any discrepancies to your Benefits Representative. If you made any changes during the Fall 2017 Open Enrollment Period, your new plan(s) and premium should be reflected on your January 2018 pay warrant. In addition, you should receive written confirmation and identification cards (as applicable), which were expected to be mailed out in mid-December. Watch out for these in your home mailbox.

As a reminder, you can view your benefit elections under the Benefits Summary and the Dependent and Beneficiary Coverage Summary in the portal.

W-2s will be issued in January 2018 by the State Controller's Office (SCO), and mailed to an employees’ home address on file in SOLAR HR as of the close of business on December 11, 2017. Employees who do not receive their W-2 by the end of January should contact Payroll Administration at (818) 677-3808 after January 31 to inquire if their W-2 was returned to the campus by the post office.

For W-2s that are not returned to the campus, or if a duplicate copy is needed, submit a request for a duplicate copy using Standard Form 436 (Request for Duplicate Wage and Tax Statement). Additional information and the duplicate W-2 request form are available through the SCO at http://www.sco.ca.gov/ppsd_empinfo_dpw-2.html. Please note that there is an $8.50 processing fee per tax year for duplicate W-2s. All requests should be sent directly to the SCO at the following address:

State Controller's Office
Personnel / Payroll Services Division
ATTN: Duplicate W2
P.O. Box 942850
Sacramento, CA 94250-5878

For assistance in requesting a duplicate W–2, please call the State Controller’s Office at (916) 445-2847. More information regarding Form W-2 is available at the SCO’s FAQ site at https://www.sco.ca.gov/ppsd_empinfo_form_w2.html.

The following information is provided for staff members responsible for transacting the hiring and processing of academic personnel.

Spring 2018 Academic Personnel Hiring and Processing:

The Spring 2018 Academic Personnel Hiring Memo was issued on Monday, December 11, 2017.  Here are some highlights:

The Part Time Faculty module is updated and ready for Spring 2018 hiring. Dates are:

1. Lecturers (2358) and Teaching Associates (2354) – Start 01/18/2018 and End 05/25/2018
2. Graduate Assistants (2355) – Start 01/31/2018 and End 06/30/2018

Part Time Faculty, Teaching Associate and Graduate Assistant Module entry deadlines:

1. Keying: Thursday, 02/01/2018
2. Approval: Friday, 02/02/2018

Open Lab:

Need help entering your student and/or Academic Personnel transactions? Please visit our Open Lab:

Date: Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Time: 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM

Location: Bayramiian Hall (BH) 316

Space is limited, to reserve your spot, register by clicking here at: Spring2018_AP_Lab

New Employee Sign-In:

As a reminder, new academic personnel must complete the sign-in process before they begin working:

1. No later than the effective date of the appointment
2. Example: Lecturers who start effective 01/18/17 must have signed in by that day
3. Sign-in hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

At CSUN, we want to ensure that every employee on campus has access to the tools they need to succeed, and this starts with our very own Student Assistants. As both a student and employee on campus, SA’s have an opportunity to further engage on campus while developing a core skillset that they can take with them throughout their careers. The Student Assistant Mentorship Program - StAMP is designed to be a useful tool for supervisors to provide students with an outline on how to Put the Customer First, learn The Work Environment and gain Professional Development resources and skills. The StAMP Handbook is a useful tool that students can keep with them with everything from advice on etiquette, to personal presentation.

Your role as a supervisor and mentor is crucial to student assistants' personal and professional development. Even a modest amount of time can make a difference in the lives of student employees. Familiarize yourself with the contents of the StAMP booklet or website, use the resources in the Mentor Toolbox, and follow three easy steps to help your Student Assistant have a successful employment experience.

For supervisors or managers of Student Assistants, if you are interested in obtaining copies of our StAMP Handbook to offer your student employees, please send an email to professional.development@csun.edu requesting the number of copies needed. 

To find out more information about the program, please visit and refer your student assistants to the StAMP website at: https://www.csun.edu/development/stamp.

Semester Breaks

When school is not in session, due to semester breaks (outside of the academic semester), continuing Student Assistants may work up to a maximum of 40 hours per week, but may not be scheduled to work overtime. Overtime is defined as more than 40 hours per work week (work week is defined as Sunday through Saturday). A schedule may exceed 8 hours a day provided the total for the work week does not exceed 40 hours. The Controller's Office will not issue payments to Student Assistants in excess of 168 hours for a 21-day period, nor in excess of 176 hours for a 22-day period.  

Academic Semesters

During the Academic Semester (please see CSUN campus academic calendar), Student Assistants may work up to, but not in excess of, 20 hours per week total in all positions combined.  

Split Weeks

When the academic semester starts, or ends, in the middle of a work week it is a “split” week.

The first day of the Spring 2018 semester is Thursday, January 18th. The allowed hours for the week of 1/15/18 through 1/19/18 are:

• Monday = 8 hours  
• Tuesday = 8 hours 
• Wednesday = 8 hours 
• Thursday = 4 hours 
• Friday = 4 hours

• Total hours that can be worked in this “split” week scenario is 32 hours, in any combination of hours throughout the week.

Is it time for a Financial Wellness Check-up? The CSU offers you additional ways to save for your future.

• For the 2018 tax year, the contribution limits are increasing from $18,000 to $18,500 to a 403(b) or 401(k) plan, subject to the 415(c) limit, AND $18,500 to a governmental 457(b) plan, for a total contribution of up to $37,000.
• To view additional information on our Retirement and Savings Programs, please visit the Savings Plus Program page for information on the 401(k) and 457 plan, or the Tax Shelter Annuity Program page for information on the 403(b) plan.

In addition, check the Spring 2018 Professional & Personal Development Calendar to find out when retirement savings specialists from from Fidelity, CalPERS and Savings Plus will be on campus.

You can view your Annual Member Statement by logging in to your MyCalPERS account at: https://www.calpers.ca.gov/page/active-members/retirement-benefits/service-credit/annual-member-statement.

Changes in work schedules from alternate to regular, that were made for the December 2017 holiday period, should be reverted back to the alternate work schedule by submitting an Action Request Form to Payroll Administration. Schedule changes should be submitted 21 days in advance.

The CSU provides for the 2 ½-month grace period extension allowed by the U.S. Department of Treasury for flexible spending plans. As a result, current participants (as of December 2017) with balances in the Health Care Reimbursement Account Plan (HCRA) and/or the Dependent Care Reimbursement Account Plan (DCRA) as of December 31, 2017 will be allowed to utilize remaining 2017 balances toward reimbursement of eligible medical and/or dependent care expenses incurred from January 1, 2018 through March 15, 2018. Any balance remaining in either a 2017 HCRA or 2017 DCRA account after March 15, 2018 will be forfeited.

All HCRA/DCRA claims for services provided 1/1/2018 – 3/15/2018 will automatically be processed against a remaining 2017 balance if filed by June 30, 2018. If your claim exceeds the available funds from 2017, any excess will be automatically applied to your 2018 plan.

For more information, visit the ASI website at http://www.asiflex.com/.

If you are a new part-time faculty member or returning faculty and are benefits eligible* for the Spring semester, we invite you to click here and view information on plan options, eligibility, and how to enroll. Benefits Packets are also available in the Office of Human Resources, UN 165.

*To be eligible for benefits, part-time faculty must have an Academic Year (AY) classification and have an appointment of at least six units (.4 time base) for one semester.

Faculty currently enrolled in Medical/Dental/Vision benefits or FlexCash who fall below six units should notify Benefits Administration regarding continuation of coverage. COBRA coverage may be available. For information on COBRA please visit http://www.csun.edu/benefits/cobra.

A NEW job opening number has been created effective January 3, 2018 for the continuous Emergency Hire Pool open position posted on Careers@CSUN, the CSUN Recruitment Services webpage. The job posting can be found here: HTTP://BIT.LY/HRCSUN

If the prospective emergency hire has previously held a staff/faculty appointment and an application is in their personnel file, they will not need to apply through Recruiting Solutions.  However, if s/he has not previously been employed, the applicant must apply through Careers@CSUN to Job ID 7323/Emergency Hire Pool (Administrative/Technical) (Continuous).

The Emergency Hire Pool is also utilized for applicants who seek employment for administrative and/or technical work on a short term temporary basis (Emergency Hire).   When you need candidates referred from this pool, please create an Emergency Hire job opening in Recruiting Solutions and indicate that you would like applications forwarded to you from the Emergency Hire Pool or contact your campus HR Recruiter directly.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Mika Williamson, Director, Recruitment Services and Compensation at mika.williamson@csun.edu or x 3817.

Effective January, 1, 2018, the California Minimum Wage increased to $11.00.  All employees below the new minimum will be raised to $11.00 and these changes will be applied by Human Resources. No additional data entry or action by the department is required. 

While Los Angeles City employers (including CSUN Campus Auxiliaries) have raised their minimum wage amount to $12.00 per hour, CSUN employees follow the California State minimum wage guidelines and our current minimum wage rate is $11.00 per hour.

The next anticipated increase to the CA state minimum wage will be to $12.00 per hour on 01/01/2019. (updated 01/2018).