(a) Annual salaried employees covered by this Part are evaluated annually with evaluations due on July 1st. Employees will have a formal rating assigned at each evaluation.

(b) An employee must be on the payroll for a minimum of six pay periods during the annual evaluation period to be eligible for a rating. An employee with fewer than six pay periods of creditable service shall not be formally evaluated. Otherwise eligible employees with six or more pay periods but fewer than 24 pay periods of creditable service shall receive partial advances as follows: 18 through 23 pay periods, three fourths of an advance amount; 12 through 17 pay periods, one half of the advance amount; and 6 through 11 pay periods, one fourth of the advance amount. Employees must have 20 pay periods of creditable service to be eligible for performance awards, which will not be prorated. Any complete pay period during which an employee is on leave, without pay or in less than full pay status, shall not be creditable toward the service requirement. Education directors, as defined in section 136 of the Civil Service Law, being paid over 10 months will receive credit for a full year of continuous service if they were on the payroll for 10 months. Their service and eligibility will be calculated proportionately for periods when they were not paid between September 1st and June 30th.

(c) An employee on leave with or without pay at the time the evaluation is due, who has six or more pay periods of creditable service, shall be evaluated. Any salary increase resulting from a performance advance or longevity performance award shall be paid upon the employee's return to the payroll. Any resulting lump sum performance award or merit payment shall be paid in a timely manner regardless of whether the employee has returned to the payroll. Employees who are separated from State service on July 1st, and are subsequently reinstated, who had six or more pay periods of creditable service prior to separation, will have their salary adjusted upon return to the payroll. In making this adjustment, a rating of “Effective” or its equivalent will be used.

(d) For the evaluations due July 1, 1986, the evaluation period shall be the period between the due date of the previous evaluation and July 1, 1986. Advance payments shall be prorated as described in subdivision (b) of this section, but full performance awards shall be paid to those employees last evaluated October 1, 1985 who have 15 subsequent pay periods of creditable service. Employees last rated July 1, 1985 will still require 20 pay periods of creditable service to be eligible for an award.

(f) The performance evaluation will be based on a system developed by the Office of Employee Relations and approved by the Director of the Budget. The plan will include a mechanism for evaluating employees who during a rating period move laterally (i.e., without a change in grade) between agencies and/or facilities, or who are appointed or demoted to a lower salary grade. The system will also include a performance evaluation appeals process; provided however, that dollar amounts of performance advances, performance awards and merit payments are not subject to appeal.