Notes for Payroll Software Providers on NES Requirements
(Version 7.1)
Contact Information:
Central Statistics Office,
Skehard Road,
Blackrock,
Cork.
Telephone:
Mairead Griffin: +00353-21-4535586
Paul M Crowley: +00353-21-4535090
E-mail:
Mairead.griffin@cso.ie
Paul.M.Crowley@cso.ie
CSO website:
www.CSO.ie
Table of Contents:
PART 1: DOCUMENT HISTORY ............................................................................................................................. 2
PART 2: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 4
PART 3: FILE SPECIFICATION. ............................................................................................................................. 7
PART 4: REPORT ON NUMBERS EMPLOYED BY GENDER AND OCCUPATION ................................... 12
PART 5: EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN XML FILE. ............................................................................ 14
PART 6: EXPLANATORY NOTES ON ELEMENTS & ATTRIBUTES ............................................................ 17
PART 7: SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR PROGRAMMERS:........................................................ 28
PART 8: VALIDITATION RULES AT FILE LEVEL: ......................................................................................... 31
PART 9: INSTRUCTIONS ON THE USE OF CSO’S SECURE DEPOSIT BOX. ............................................. 33
1
Part 1: Document History
Version
Author
Date
Comment
1.0
2.0
Paul M Crowley
Mairead Griffin
10/7/ 2007
04/1/2007
3.0
Mairead Griffin
18/04/08
4.0
5.0
Mairead Griffin
Mairead Griffin
22/7/08
3/11/08
6.0
Mairead Griffin
14/01/09
Creation of original document
 Addition Part 1 - Document history to document
 Part 2 – Amended to allow for an
excel version of the NES earnings
related employee information.
 Addition of Part 3 – Report on
numbers employed by gender and
occupation – to document
 Addition of points l & m to Part 2:
File specification
 Addition of Part 2 – Introduction
 Part 3 – Addition of point ‘p’ to the
file specification.
 Part 6 – Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes - amendment
to the specification of
‘Frequency_Pay’ to include an option
of ‘6’, ie ‘other pay frquency’(i.e. any
frequency other than weekly,
fortnightly, four weekly, monthly or
five weekly)
 Part 6 – Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes - amendment
to the specification of
‘Ref_Period_Pay’ to give an option of
‘5’ to be used when the period
covered by the employee’s earnings
for the reference month is greater
than 6 weeks.
 Part 6 – Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes - amendment
to the specification of
‘Ref_Period_Hours’ to give an option
of ‘5’ to be used when the paid
contracted hours cover a period
greater than 6 weeks.
 Part 6 - Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes - amendment
to the specification of
‘Ref_Period_Pay’ to clarify that ‘1’
should be used if the pay period
covers a period of ‘4 weeks or less’.
 Part 6 - Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes - amendment
to the specification of
2
‘Ref_Period_Hours’ to clarify that ‘1’
should be used if the pay period
covers a period of ‘4 weeks or less’.
7.0
Mairead Griffin
4/02/09

7.1
Mairead Griffin
3/3/09

Part 6 – Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes – amendment
to the specification of
‘Frequency_Pay’ to specifiy that ‘4’
should be used for both bi-monthly
and monthly pay frequencies.
Part 6 – Explanatory notes on
elements and attributes – amendment
to the specification of the validation
rules for ’No_Of_Weeks’ to allow a
range of ‘0 to 56’.
3
Part 2: Introduction
This document is intended to provide computer programmers with the technical specifications
and guidelines required to assist them with programming for the annual CSO’s ‘National
Employment Survey (NES). It also provides the necessary technical specifications for the
creation of an NES XML file which payroll operators can lodge directly into the CSO’s Secure
Deposit Box. Feedback to date indicates that the all payroll providers who are programming for
the NES are also programming for the quarterly ‘Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey
(EHECS). It is therefore important to note the following:
Two required types of classifications required at employee level:
To programm for both the EHECS and NES, it is required that every employee is designated as
one of the following employee types:
Employee Types:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Full time
Part time
Apprentice/trainee
Other
Exclude (e.g. for people in receipt of pension payments through the payroll)
'NES Occupational Status Code'
11 (i.e. Legislators and senior officials)
12 (i.e. Corporate managers)
13 (i.e. General managers)
21 (i.e. Physical, mathematical and engineering science professionals)
22 (i.e. Life science and health professionals)
23 (i.e. Teaching professionals)
24 (i.e. Other professionals)
31 (i.e. Physical and engineering science associate professionals)
32 (i.e. Life science and health associate professionals)
33 (i.e. Teaching associate professionals)
34 (i.e. Other associate professionals)
41 (i.e. Office clerks)
42 (i.e. Customer services clerks)
51 (i.e. Personal and protective services workers)
52 (i.e. Models, salespersons and demonstrators)
61 (i.e. Market-oriented skilled agricultural and fishery workers)
62 (i.e. Subsistence agricultural and fishery workers)
71 (i.e. Extraction and building trades workers)
72 (i.e. Metal, machinery and related trades workers)
73 (i.e. Precision, handicraft, printing and related trades workers)
74 (i.e. Other craft and related trades workers)
81 (i.e. Stationary-plant and related operators)
4
82 (i.e. Machine operators and assemblers)
83 (i.e. Drivers and mobile-plant operators)
91 (i.e. Sales and services elementary occupations)
92 (i.e. Agricultural, fishery and related labourers)
93 (i.e. Labourers in mining, construction, manufacturing and transport)
It should be noted that the ‘EHECS occupation categories’ can then be derived from the ‘NES
Occupational Status Codes’ as follows:
1) ‘NES Occupational Status Codes’ 11 to 34 aggregates to the ‘EHECS Occupation Category’
'Managers, Professionals & Associate Professional',
2) ‘NES Occupational Status Codes’ 41 to 52 aggregates to EHECS Occupation Category’
'Clerical, Sales & Service Workers'
3) ‘NES Occupational Status Codes’ 61 to 93 aggregate up to the EHECS category 'Production,
Transport Workers, Craft & Tradespersons, Other Manual Workers'.
The Classification of Payment Types:
To facilitate the combined programming for both the EHECS and NES, the payroll manager
should be provided with the following options to enable the software to capture
‘CSO Payment Types’
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Exclude from CSO returns (e.g. refund of expenses)1
Basic Wages & Salaries (including sick, maternity and holiday pay) 2
Regular Bonuses, Allowances & Commissions (excluding regular shift allowances)
Regular Shift Allowances
Irregular Bonuses, Allowances and Commissions (excluding irregular shift allowances)
Irregular Shift Allowances.
Overtime
BIK Company Vehicles
BIK Health Insurance
BIK Staff Housing
BIK Other
Redundancy payments.
Caution: Please note that the above options do not include other EHECS variables that are
captured through payroll such as Employer’s PRSI (PRSIMg, PRSICl and PRSIOt and the PRSI
component of SSecApMg, SSecApCl and SSecApOt) and Employer’s Pension contributions
(PenMg, PenCl and PenOt).
Note: While IncCtMg, IncCtCl and IncCtOt (Income continuance insurance – Part 7 of EHECS)
and OtSocMg, OtSocCl and OtSocOt (Other employee related payments – Part 7 of EHECS) may
There should be an ‘exclude’ option for paycodes to allow a payroll manager to exclude non relevant pay
codes, e.g. refunds of travel and subsistence.
1
2
We suggest using the descriptive term 'basic wages & salaries' rather than just regular wages and
salaries as most payrolls appear to have paycodes set up 'wages' and/or 'salaries' and there seems to be
confusion about whether or not someone's basic pay is always regular or not (the answer to this is 'yes').
Extra care will need to be taken by users with an integrated time and attendance system to ensure that
they include all the relevant paycodes that are just another name for an employee’s basic pay when they
are e.g. out of the office on official business, on training etc.
5
also be captured through payroll, to simplify the classification process for payroll operators, the
CSO is happy to accept ‘Income continuance’ and ‘Other employee related payments’ as either
Regular/Irregular Bonuses, Allowances & Commissions.
Thus for the NES,
NES Element = Annual_Earnings (i.e. employee’s total gross earnings for the reference year) =
the total paid during the year of the following: (2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11)
NES Element = Irregular_Bonuses (i.e. employee’s total gross irregular bonuses, allowances and
commission for the reference year) = the total paid during the year of the following: (5+6)
NES Element = Annual_Benefit_In_Kind (i.e. total notional income calculation of the
employee’s benefit-in-kind for the reference year) = the total paid during the year of the
following: (8+9+10+11)
NES Element = Gross_Earnings (i.e. employee’s total gross earnings in the reference month) =
the total paid during the reference month of the following: (2+3+4+6+7)
NES Element = Overtime_Earnings (i.e. employee’s total gross overtime earnings in the
reference month) = the total paid during the reference month of the following: (7)
NES Element = Shift_Allowance (i.e. gross amount of shift allowances paid to the employee in
the reference month) = the total paid during the reference month of the following: (4+6).
NES Element = Total_Commission (i.e. gross amount of all regular commissions, allowances
and bonuses paid to the employee in the reference month) = the total paid during the reference
month of the following: (3+4).
6
PART 3: FILE SPECIFICATION.
a) Running the NES report.
Each year, a sample of employers will be requested to complete the National Employment Survey
(NES). The NES employer survey has two elements:


General employer information – Other than for question A.1 (see Part 3 of this document),
this part of the NES employer survey is not payroll related and changes from year to year.
This information will be collected directly from the employer on a form and returned to the
CSO by post.
Earnings-related employee information – this concerns information relating to a sample of
employees. This is collected by the employer and is what this payroll module will produce.
The earnings related information will be required for a sample of employees. Please note that the
sample size (i.e. sampling fraction) can range from one in one (i.e. all employees are to be
selected) to one in twenty, will vary from employer to employer (depending on the number of
employees engaged in the enterprise) and can change from year to year. The CSO will advise the
employer of the sampling fraction to use when they contact the employer at the beginning of the
survey. The earnings related data is required for both a reference year (e.g. 2007) and a reference
month within that year (e.g. October 2007).
The sample should be selected from all employees who are on the payroll and receive wages or
salaries during the reference month. As the earnings related data is required at the individual
employee level, there will need to be as many iterations of the XML “data” element and child
elements as there are sampled individuals. See file specification note c) ‘Repeatable data
elements in the XML file specification’ for further information on the formatting of repeatable
elements.
In order to run the NES report, the payroll operator should be prompted to enter the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Reference year.
Reference month.
Sampling fraction.
CBR
b) Sampling instructions
The CSO will require a sample of employees (whether salaried or waged) who are on the payroll
and receive wages or salaries during a particular period, called the reference month (e.g. for NES
2007, the reference month is October 2007). The size of the sample (i.e. the sampling fraction),
e.g. one in one (i.e. all), one in two, one in ten, one in twenty etc, will be determined by the CSO
and notified to the company.
Employees are defined as all people who were on the payroll and received wages or salaries
during the reference month Therefore, unpaid employees such as voluntary workers or family
members, employment agency staff (where these staff remain employees of the employment
agency) etc. should be excluded.
7
It is important that the sample is representative of all relevant employees, without
exception. If, for instance, separate payrolls are maintained for persons of different grades or in
different locations, then all of these payrolls should, prior to the sample selection, be combined
into one overall master list and then a sample selected from this list. However, if this is not
possible, then a sample should be selected from each of the different groups.
Selection procedure
The easiest way to select the sample is to:


Assign or generate a random number for all relevant employees (i.e. all employees who are
on the payroll and received a wage or salary during the reference month)
Select those employees above a cut-off point sufficient to fulfil the sample size requirements.
Examples:
(1) Company A has 99 relevant employees in October 2007 and is requested to select a one in ten
sample. This equates to 9.9 employees. Following the usual rounding policy this implies a
sample of 10 employees. The payroll software assigns a random number to each of the 99
employees and chooses the top ten (by value of the random number) employees.
(2) Company B has 19 employees in October 2007 and is requested to select a one in one (or
100%) sample. This implies that all employees are included in the sample.
The key points for the sample selection is that all relevant employees are included in the sampling
frame (i.e. the population from which the sample is drawn) and the selection is at random (i.e.
each employee has an equal chance of being selected for the sample). For this to be possible then
the generation and assignment of the random numbers must be done at random.
c) Type of electronic returns accepted.
Either an XML or Excel file will be accepted by the CSO from any given employer.
d) Repeatable data elements in the XML file specification.
As the number of employees selected in the sample will always be greater than one, the following
data elements in the XML file are repeatable: Full_Name, PPS, Id_Reference, Annual_Earnings,
Irregular_Bonuses, Annual_Benefit_In_Kind, No_Of_Weeks, Paid_Holidays, Other_Absence,
Employment_Type, Frequency_Pay, Ref_Period_Pay, Status_Code, Gross_Earnings,
Overtime_Earnings, Shift_Allowance, Total_Commission, PRSI_Class, Ref_Period_Hours,
Contracted_Hours, Overtime_Hours, Addr1_Employee, Addr2_Employee,
Addr3_Employee, Addr4_Employee, Addr5_Employee. The number of iterations of the data
elements should equal the sample size, i.e. if Total_Sample = 55, then there should be 55
iterations of the aforementioned data elements. Please see the accompanying example of an XML
file and schema for the formatting of these repeatable elements.
e) XML/Excel File name:
8
When returning an XML file to the CSO’s secure deposit box, the XML file must have the
following file name:
CBR_Yr_NES_DDMMYYYY_HHMMSS.XML
Where:
CBR = The returning employer’s enterprise number.
Yr = The four digit year that the data contained in the XML file relates to.
NES = An acronym for National Employment Survey
DDMMYYYY = The date that the XML file was created.
HHMMSS = The time that the XML file was created using a 24 hour clock.
Note: CBR is a child element of the element “Company”. Yr is an attribute of the element “NES”
e.g. EN07239417_2007_NES_01042007_132407 is the file name for an NES return for the year
2007 that was created on 1st April 2007 at 1.24 p.m. for an employer with an Enterprise number
of “EN07239417”.
Similarly, when returning an Excel file to the CSO’s secure deposit box, the excel file must have
the following file name:
CBR_Yr_NES_DDMMYYYY_HHMMSS.XLS
Where:
CBR = The returning employer’s enterprise number.
Yr = The four digit year that the data contained in the XML file relates to.
NES = An acronym for National Employment Survey
DDMMYYYY = The date that the XML file was created.
HHMMSS = The time that the XML file was created using a 24 hour clock.
f) Amended returns:
The latest version of a return replaces previous versions of a return for any given year. If an
employer returns more than one XML/Excel file to the CSO for this survey for a particularly
year, the latest return (identified by the date on the file name) will overwrite all previous
returns for that year. It is therefore vitally important that all amended returns contain all the
data (amended if necessary) that was contained on the original XML/Excel file.
g) The coding of elements and attribute ID’s contained in XML files and column names in
Excel files:
The titles of the elements and attribute ID’s contained on the XML file must be identical to those
contained in the attached XML file specification and listed in this document. Particular care must
be taken to use capital and small case letters as appropriate. E.g. Ref_Period must not be coded as
Ref_Period. Similarly, with excel files, the column names must be identical to those contained in
the sample NES excel file attached.
h) EHECS and NES surveys
9
The Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) is a short-term earnings and labour
cost survey and is a separate survey from the NES. The specifications for both surveys may
contain similar elements but each survey should be generated with its own payroll option.
i) Checking for incorrect CBR’s
The CBR is the unique permanent identifier assigned by the CSO to each enterprise and given to
the enterprise at the start of the survey. As the CBR is a unique identifier of each enterprise, it is
vitally important that the CBR is correctly entered onto the NES return, particularly in the event
of someone lodging a corrupt file that we are unable to open. To minimise the possibility of a
payroll operator entering an incorrect CBR, payroll providers should program an internal check
of the CBR.
The CBR number must have the following format: ENxxxxxxxK where:



EN is an acronym for "Enterprise", is always at the start of the cbr number and must be in
capital letters. (Note: The CBR is called the CBR number but is in fact a character string)
xxxxxxx = seven numbers
K is the check digit for the cbr;
K is calculated as follows:
1) Total the numbers by applying the formula a*8 + b*7 + c*6 + d*5 + e*4 + f*3 + g*2
where a is the first number after 'EN', b is the second number after 'EN and so on.
2) Divide the total by 11 and round down to the nearest whole number.
3) Multiply this whole number by 11 and take away from the original total.
4) Take this figure from 11 and this is the check digit.
5) If the check digit is 10 then it becomes 0 and if it is 11 it becomes '-'
E.g. An enterprise has the following CBR number "EN32879563"
The total (1) is 3*8 + 2*7 + 8*6 + 7*5 + 9*4 + 5*3 +6*2 = 184
Divided by 11 is 16.727 and rounding down is 16.
Multiply by 11 is 176 and taking away from the original total is 184 - 176 = 8
Therefore the check digit is 11 – 8 = 3.
The above CBR is therefore a valid number.
j) All elements and attributes must be listed in the prescribed order on all XML files
Even if the element or attribute is an optional field and therefore blank (e.g. address line 4), the
name of the element/attribute must appear on all XML files and in the same order as that given in
the XML file specification.
k) Do not use quotation marks
10
Payroll operators should not be able to enter quotation marks into any fields in the XML file.
l) Exclusion of certain categories of payments from the NES return
An ‘exclude’ option should be available so that certain category of payments (e.g. refund of
expenses) can be excluded from the return.
m) The ability to convert ‘unit’ payments to hours and to exclude certain categories of
hourly imputs from the calculation of paid contracted hours and paid overtime hours.
The payroll manager should have the option of excluding certain hourly paid elements from the
calculation of ‘paid contracted hours’ and ’paid overtime hours’. The facility should also be
present to allow the payroll manager to convert ‘unit based payments’ to corresponding hours.
E.g an employee is rostered to work 7 hours on a Sunday at a premium rate of 2.5 times basic
pay. The payroll manager pays this as follows: 7 hours at the basic rate plus 7 hours (i.e. the
Sunday ‘premium’) at time and a half. The paid hours that we want returned for the NES is 7
hours and not 14 hours. Payroll managers may also enter certain categories of pay as unit based
payments rather than hourly based payment, e.g. paying employees by the day (for the purpose of
the example we will say that a day corresponds to 7 hours). Thus, in this example, the ‘daily’
units have to be converted into the corresponding hours. The inclusion of a ‘CSO hours
multiplier’ that in the first example could be set to ‘zero’ and the second example be set to ‘7’
would allow for the return of correct ‘paid contracted hours’ and ‘paid overtime hours’ on the
NES return. The multiplication of the ‘units’ and ‘hours’ by their multiplier would ensure the
correct calculation of paid overtime hours and paid contracted hours for the NES.
n) Exclude pensioners from NES return
If the enterprise makes pension payments to its former employees through the payroll, then these
pensioners should be excluded from the NES sample.
o) The payroll operator should be prompted to save a copy of the XML/Excel file prior to
lodging it into the CSO’s secure deposit box.
Prior to submitting the XML file to the CSO, the payroll operator should be prompted to save a
copy of the file.
p) Check for ‘paid contracted hours’ against all employees before running the NES report.
When the payroll operator tries to generate the NES report, they should get an error message if
there are any full time/part time/apprentice/trainee employees (i.e. ignore any 'excluded' or 'other'
employees) who are in receipt of a payment during the quarter with a CSO classification of
'Regular' (i.e. Basic wages and salaries, regular shift allowances or regular bonuses, allowances
and commissions) and for whom there are no paid contracted hours. This would highlight to the
user the need to enter contracted hours for all employees.
11
PART 4: REPORT ON NUMBERS EMPLOYED BY GENDER AND OCCUPATION
As mentioned in Part 2, section a of this document, the NES employer survey consists of two
parts, namely:
 General employer information – Other than for question A.1 (see table below), this part of the
NES employer survey is not payroll related and changes from year to year. This information
will be collected directly from the employer on a form and returned to the CSO by post.
 Earnings-related employee information – this concerns information relating to a sample of
employees. This is collected by the employer and is what this payroll module will produce
and is covered in detail in Parts 4 to 7 of this document.
The XML file specification outlined in Parts 4 and 5 of this document covers the earnings –
related employee information for a sample of employees. Question A.1 of the General employer
information part of the NES is however payroll related. As the general employer information part
of the NES employer survey must be returned by post using the form which issues from the CSO,
we are asking payroll software providers to enable their users to generate a report to provide the
following information. It should be noted that this information is required for 31st December of
the reference year.
A.1
(a) No. of Employees (all persons paid a wage or salary)
Occupation*
Male
Female
Total
Managers, Senior Officials
Professionals
Technicians & Associate Professionals
Clerical Workers
Sales & Service Workers
Skilled Agricultural and Fishery Workers
Craft & Related Trades Workers
Plant and Machine Operators & Assemblers
Other Manual Occupations
Total
*
0
0
0
For a definition of the occupations see "Occupational Status Codes" Tab below
The NES occupational status codes aggregate to the NES occupations for the completion of
question A.1 as follows:
Managers and Senior Officials
11 Legislators & senior officials
12 Corporate managers
13 Managers of small enterprises
Professionals
21 Engineering & science professionals
22 Life science & health professionals
23 Teaching professionals
24 Other professionals
12
Technicians & Associate Professionals
31 Engineering & science assoc. professionals
32 Life science & health assoc. professionals
33 Teaching assoc. professionals
34 Other assoc. professionals
Clerical Workers
41 Office clerks
42 Customer service clerks
Service & sales workers
51 Personal & protective services workers
52 Models, salespersons & demonstrators
Skilled agricultural & fishery workers
61 Skilled agricultural & fishery workers
Craft & related trades workers
71 Extraction & building trades workers
72 Metal, machinery & related trades workers
73 Precision, handicraft & related trades workers
74 Other craft & related trades workers
Plant & machine operators & assemblers
81 Stationary plant & related operators
82 Machine operators & assemblers
83 Drivers & mobile plant operators
Other manual occupations
91 Sales & services elementary occupations
92 Agricultural, fishery & related labourers
93 Mining, construction, manufacturing & transport labourers
13
PART 5: EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN XML FILE.
Yr = “ Year”
TypRt = “ Type of Return”
SoftwareName = “Name of the payroll package producing the XML file”
SoftwareVersion = “The version of the payroll package producing the XML file”
VendorName = “The name of the payroll supplier”
VendorPhone = “Contact phone number of payroll supplier”
Name = “Enterprise Name”
Addr1 = “ Address line 1”
Addr2 = “ Address line 2”
Addr3 = “ Address line 3”
Addr4 = “ Address line 4”
Addr5 = “ Address line 5”
ChgAd = “ Change of name and/or address indicator”
CBR = “ Enterprise Number”
Total_Sample = “Number of persons sampled”
Contact = “ Name of person signing declaration”
Phone = “ Phone number of person signing the declaration”
Email = “ E-mail address of person signing the declaration”
14
Date = “ Date the declaration is signed off by the company”
Position= “Position of person signing declaration”
Full_Name = "Full name of the employee"
PPS = "Employee’s Personal Public Service number"
Id_Reference = “Employee’s unique identifier”
Annual_Earnings = "Employee’s total gross earnings for the reference year"
= "Employee’s gross irregular bonuses and allowances for the reference year "
Irregular_Bonuses
Annual_Benefit_In_Kind
= "Employee’s total notional income for the reference year"
= "Number of weeks in the reference year that the employee's total gross annual
No_Of_Weeks
earnings relate to"
Paid_Holidays
Other_Absence
= "Number of hours of annual paid leave for the employee"
= "Number of hours of other paid absence for the employee"
Employment_Type
= "Type of employment contract held by the employee"
Frequency_Pay = “Pay frequency of the employee”
= "Period covered by the employee’s earnings for the reference month"
Ref_Period_Pay
Status_Code
= "Employee’s NES Occupational Status Code”
Gross_Earnings
Overtime_Earnings
Shift_Allowance
= "Employee’s total gross earnings in the reference month"
= "Employee’s total gross overtime earnings in the reference month"
= "Gross amount of shift allowances paid to the employee in the reference month"
Total_Commission = "Employee’s gross regular commissions and bonuses paid in the reference month"
15
PRSI_Class = "Employee’s Pay Related Social Insurance class"
Ref_Period_Hours = = " Reference period for the paid contracted hours data "
Contracted_Hours = "Number of contracted hours paid to the employee during the reference month";
Overtime_Hours
= "Number of overtime hours paid to the employee during the reference month";
Addr1_Employee = “ Address line 1 of the sampled employee”
Addr2_Employee = “ Address line 2 of the sampled employee”
Addr3_Employee = “ Address line 3 of the sampled employee”
Addr4_Employee = “ Address line 4 of the sampled employee”
Addr5_Employee = “ Address line 5 of the sampled employee”
Comment = “Comments to help interpret the data provided”;
16
PART 6: EXPLANATORY NOTES ON ELEMENTS & ATTRIBUTES
Element: NES. Attribute = Yr
Short Description: Year
Detailed description: The four-digit year that the returned data relates to.
Validation Rules: A required 4-digit numeric field e.g. 2006, 2007.
Element: NES. Attribute = TypRt
Short Description: The one character indicator for the type of return. It signifies whether the
return is an original or amended return.
Detailed Description: If the return is an original return, enter “O”. If the return is an amended
return, then enter “A” into this field.
Validation Rules: A required alpha field; Length 1; valid entries O or A. Capital Letters only.
Default to “O”.
Element: NES. Attribute = SoftwareName
Short Description: Name of payroll package producing the XML file.
Detailed description: The name of the software package generating the XML file.
Validation Rules: A required alphanumeric field: Maximum length of 80 characters. This name
should be hardcoded into the system so that it automatically generates each time the XML file is
created.
Element: NES. Attribute = SoftwareVersion
Short Description: The version of the payroll package generating the XML file
Detailed description: The version number of the payroll package generating the XML file.
Validation Rules: A required alphanumeric field: Maximum length of 10 characters. This should
be hardcoded into the system so that it automatically generates each time the XML file is created.
Element: NES. Attribute = VendorName
Short Description: The name of company supplying the payroll package
Detailed description: The full name of the company that produces the software package used to
generate the XML file.
Validation Rules: A required alphanumeric field: Maximum length of 80 characters. This name
should be hardcoded into the system so that it automatically generates each time the XML file is
created.
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Element: NES. Attribute = VendorPhone
Short Description: Contact phone number of payroll provider.
Detailed description: The contact phone number of the company producing the software used to
generate the XML file.
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field. Maximum length 14 characters. Should be
entered in the format area code, hyphen, local number with no spaces in between, e.g. 01123456789, 087-12345678. This contact number should be hardcoded into the system so that it
automatically generates each time the XML file is created.
Element: Company. Child element = Name
Short Description: Enterprise name/Employer name
Detailed Description: Enter the name of the enterprise/employer
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field: Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Company. Child element = Addr1
Short Description: Address line 1
Detailed Description: The first line of the enterprise’s/employer’s address.
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Company. Child element = Addr2
Short Description: Address line 2
Detailed Description: The second line of the enterprise’s/employer’s address.
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Company. Child element = Addr3
Short Description: Address line 3
Detailed Description: The third line of the enterprise’s/employer’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Company. Child element = Addr4
Short Description: Address line 4
Detailed Description: The fourth line of the enterprise’s/employer’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Company. Child element = Addr5
Short Description: Address line 5
Detailed Description: The fifth line of the enterprise’s/employer’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
18
Element: Company. Child element = ChgAd
Short Description: Change of name and/or address indicator.
Detailed Description: Change of enterprise name and/or address indicator. Enter “1” if you wish
to notify the CSO of any changes to the enterprise/employer’s name and/or address fields.
Validation Rules: A required one digit numeric field. Range 0 to 1. Default to 0
Element: Company. Child element = CBR
Short Description: Enterprise number
Detailed Description: The enterprise number is the 10-character reference quoted on all
correspondence between the enterprise and the CSO.
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field. Length 10. Must begin with the characters
‘EN’ followed by seven numeric characters and a check digit (note that the check digit can be any
number in the range 0 to 9 or a ‘hyphen’). EN must be in capital letters. E.g. “EN12345679” or
“EN0123456-”. To check for valid CBR numbers, the CBR number must have the following
format: ENxxxxxxxK where: EN = an acronym for "Enterprise" and is always at the start of the
CBR number (it is called the CBR number but is in fact a character string), xxxxxxx = seven
numbers, K is the check digit for the CBR.
K is calculated as follows:
1) Total the numbers by applying the formula a*8 + b*7 + c*6 + d*5 + e*4 + f*3 + g*2 where a
is the first number after 'EN', b is the second number after 'EN and so on.
2) Divide the total by 11 and round down to the nearest whole number.
3) Multiply this whole number by 11 and take away from the original total.
4) Take this figure from 11 and this is the check digit.
5) If the check digit is 10 then it becomes 0 and if it is 11 it becomes '-'
E.g. The enterprise has the following number "EN32879563"
The total (1) is 3*8 + 2*7 + 8*6 + 7*5 + 9*4 + 5*3 +6*2 = 184
Divided by 11 is 16.727 and rounding down is 16.
Multiply by 11 is 176 and taking away from the original total is 184 - 176 = 8
Therefore the check digit is 11 – 8 = 3.
Thus the above CBR is a valid number.
Element: Company. Child element = Total_Sample
Short Description: Number of persons sampled.
Detailed Description: The total number of persons selected for the sample and whose individual
level data for the reference year and reference month is included in the XML file
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Maximum length 5. Range 1 to 99999. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element: Declaration. Child element = Contact
Short Description: Name of person signing the declaration
Detailed Description: Name of the person declaring that the data in the return is complete and
accurate.
Validation Rules: A required alpha field. Maximum length 40 characters.
19
Element: Declaration. Child element = Phone
Short Description: Phone number of person signing the declaration
Detailed Description: The contact phone number (including area code) of the person signing the
declaration
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field. Maximum length 14. Should be entered in the
format area code, hyphen, local number with no spaces in between, e.g. 01-123456789, 08712345678
Element: Declaration. Child element = Email
Short Description: E-mail address of person signing the declaration
Detailed Description: E-mail address of person signing the declaration
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field. Maximum length 80 characters.
Element: Declaration. Child element = Date
Short Description: Date the declaration is signed off by the employer.
Detailed Description: Date on which declaration is completed.
Validation Rules: A required date field in the format DDMMYYYY
Element: Declaration. Child element = Position
Short Description: Position of person completing the declaration.
Detailed Description: The position or job title of the person completing the declaration.
Validation Rules: A required alpha numeric field. Maximum length 40 (e.g. financial controller.)
Element Name: Data Child element = Full_Name
Short Description: Full name of the employee.
Detailed Description: Enter the full name of the employee, including, if available, their middle
name(s).
Validation Rules: A required alpha field. Maximum length 40 characters.
Element Name: Data Child element = PPS
Short Description: Employee’s Personal Public Service number.
Detailed Description: Enter the employee’s PPS number.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field. Maximum length 9 characters. First 7
characters must be numeric followed by 1 or 2 alpha characters.
20
Element Name: Data Child element = Id_Reference
Short Description: Employee’s unique identifier required only if the employee’s PPS number is
missing.
Detailed Description: If, for any reason, the PPS number is not available, then enter a unique id
for the employee. This may be his or her staff number or any other reference number or
alphanumeric code that uniquely identifies the employee in question. If the PPS is available, this
field can be left blank.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field. Maximum length 9 characters.
Element Name: Data Child element = Annual_Earnings
Short Description: Employee’s total gross earnings for the reference year
Detailed Description: The employee’s total gross annual earnings, including backdated arrears
and bonuses and the notional income calculation of Benefit in Kind (BIK). It should include all
payroll codes that affect gross earnings and notional income, but exclude any severance
payments made to the employee. N.B. If the employee commenced employment during the
reference year and had earnings for that year with another employer, only include the earnings for
the reference year that was paid by the employer completing the survey.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 9999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element Name: Data Child element = Irregular_Bonuses
Short Description: Employee’s total gross irregular bonuses and allowances for the reference
year
Detailed Description: Enter the gross total, rounded to the nearest Euro, of all irregular bonuses
and allowances paid to the employee during the reference year. Irregular bonuses and allowances
are payments, other than overtime, that affect gross earnings and are not paid at each pay period,
e.g. holiday bonuses, 13th month payments, quarterly or annual company bonuses, profit sharing
taken as cash, allowances for leave not taken, occasional commissions etc. This figure will have
been included in Annual_Earnings. N.B. If the employee commenced employment during the
reference year and had earnings for that year with another employer, only include the irregular
bonuses and allowances for the reference year that were paid by the employer completing the
survey.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 9999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element Name: Data Child element = Annual_Benefit_In_Kind
Short Description: The employee’s total notional income calculation of benefit-in-kind for the
reference year.
Detailed Description: Enter the total value of the annual benefit-in-kind or notional income
calculation for the employee (e.g. private use of a company car, medical insurance payments by
the company, company products at reduced prices, housing etc). This figure will have been
included in Annual_Earnings. N.B. If the employee commenced employment during the
reference year and had BIK for that year with another employer, only include the notional income
calculation of BIK from the employer completing the survey.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 9999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
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Element Name: Data Child element = No_Of_Weeks
Short Description: Number of weeks in the reference year that the employee's total gross annual
earnings from the employer relate to.
Detailed Description: Enter the number of weeks in the reference year to which the employee’s
gross earnings relate. Weeks for part-time employees should not be adjusted for hours worked,
e.g. if a part-time employee works 50% of the time for 40 weeks then 40 should be entered here.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 56. No decimal places. No spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Paid_Holidays
Short Description: Number of hours of annual paid holiday leave for the employee for the
reference year.
Detailed Description: Enter the total, in hours, of the employee’s normal annual paid holidays,
including those granted to the employee by reason of age, performance of duties, seniority and
other reasons. Do not include any paid annual holidays carried forward from previous years. The
following are not regarded as annual paid holidays and should be excluded: public holidays,
training leave, rest days or time off granted as a result of teamwork, days granted for personal
reasons such as family illness or bereavement, leave in lieu of overtime, flexi-leave etc.
N.B: If the employee has an annual holiday entitlement of e.g. 192 hours but only commenced
employment on 1st April of the reference year. S/he thus works for only nine months of the year
and therefore his/her total of Paid_Holidays should be adjusted accordingly, i.e. 9/12 multiplied
by 192 = 144 hours.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0.0 to 9999.9. Round to one decimal place.
No spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Other_Absence
Short Description: Number of hours of other paid absence taken by the employee in the
reference year.
Detailed Description: Enter the total number of other (i.e. excluding paid holiday leave) annual
hours of paid absence taken by the employee during the year. This includes paid sick leave,
public holidays and any paid leave granted for personal reasons such as parental leave,
compassionate leave, marriage leave, force majeure, study/exam leave, jury duty and maternity
leave etc. Exclude any paid hours spent on work-related business such as company training etc,
leave in lieu of overtime and flexi leave
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0.0 to 9999.9. Round to one decimal place.
No spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Employment_Type
Short Description: Type of employment contract held by the employee during the reference
month.
Detailed Description: May be on the payroll. The employee’s employment contract should fall
under one of the following four categories: 1 = Indefinite duration, 2 = Fixed term, 3 =
Apprentice/Trainee, 4 = Other. Note: The employment contract does not relate to whether an
employee is full time or part time. E.g. a part-time employee can have an indefinite contract.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 1 to 4. Default to 1. No decimal places. No
spaces.
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Element Name: Data Child element = Frequency_Pay
Short Description: The frequency of payment of wages and salaries to the employee in the
reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter a ‘1’ if the employee is paid weekly, ‘2’ if the employee is paid
fortnightly, ‘3’ if the employee is paid four weekly, ‘4’ if the employee is paid either bi-monthly
or monthly, ‘5’ if the employee is paid five weekly or ‘6’ for all other frequencies (i.e.
frequencies other than weekly, fortnightly, four weekly, monthly or five weekly). N.B: A five
weekly pay frequency refers to employees who are paid every four weeks but receive an
additional one week payment (i.e. a thirteenth week payment) every thirteen weeks. Only enter a
‘5’ if the employee is actually paid a thirteenth week payment during the reference month. If
the employee is only paid a four weekly payment during the reference month, (i.e. does not
actually receive a thirteenth week payment during the reference month) then ‘3’ should be
entered for ‘Frequency_Pay’.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Value 1 to 6. No decimal places. No spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Ref_Period_Pay
Short Description: The period covered by the employee’s earnings for the reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter a ‘1’ if the data covers four weeks or less, “2” if it covers the
calendar month, ‘3’ if it covers five weeks, ‘4’ if it covers 6 weeks (i.e. three fortnightly
payments made during the reference month) or ‘5’ if it covers a period greater than 6 weeks.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 1 to 5. No decimal places. No spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Status_Code
Short Description: Employee’s NES occupational status code for the reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter the 2-digit NES occupational status code of the employee during the
reference month.
Validation Rules: Must be one of the following:
11, 12, 13, 21, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 34, 41, 42, 51, 52, 61, 71, 72, 73, 74, 81, 82, 83, 91, 92, 93.
No decimal places. No spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Gross_Earnings
Short Description: The Employee’s total gross earnings in the reference month
Detailed Description: Enter the employee’s total gross pay for the reference month. It should
include:
1) All payroll codes that affect gross pay and are paid at each pay period (even though the amount
paid may vary).
2) Paid overtime.
3) The total shift allowances and/or commissions paid during the reference period.
4) Payments for periods of absence and work stoppage.
It should exclude:
1) The notional income calculation of benefit in kind
2) Reimbursements for travel or subsistence payments incurred in carrying out the employers
business
3) Allowances for work clothes or tools
4) Statutory family allowances
23
5) Payments paid in the reference period but relating to other periods such as pay arrears or
advances.
6) Periodic bonuses and gratuities not paid regularly at each pay date.
N.B. If the employee commenced employment during the reference month and had earnings for
that month with another employer, only include the relevant earnings for the reference month that
were paid by the employer completing the survey.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element Name: Data Child element = Overtime_Earnings
Short Description: Employee’s total gross overtime earnings in the reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter the gross amount of the employee’s overtime earnings in the
reference month. This figure will have been included in Gross_Earnings. The total cost of
overtime should be included here, not just the premium element of overtime added to the normal
hourly rate. N.B. If the employee commenced employment during the reference month and had
overtime earnings for that month with another employer, only include the overtime earnings for
the reference month that were paid by the employer completing the survey.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element Name: Data Child element = Shift_Allowance
Short Description: Gross amount of shift allowances paid to the employee in the reference
month.
Detailed Description: Enter the total gross amount of shift allowances paid to the employee
during the reference month. Shift allowances include any special premiums for shift work, night
work or weekend work where these payments are not treated as overtime. Only the premium part
should be entered as a shift allowance. This figure will have been included in Gross_Earnings.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element Name: Data Child element = Total_Commission
Short Description: Total gross regular commissions and bonuses paid to the employee in the
reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter the gross amount of any regular commissions and bonuses paid to
the employee during the reference month. Include all bonuses and allowances paid regularly in
each pay period, even if the amount varies from pay period to pay period. This figure will have
been included in Gross_Earnings.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0 to 999999. No decimal places. No spaces.
No 1,000 separator (,)
Element Name: Data Child element = PRSI_Class
Short Description: Employee’s Pay Related Social Insurance class for the reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter the employee’s PRSI class.
Validation Rules: A required alphanumeric field. It must be one of the following:
24
A0, A1, A2, A8, A9, AL, AX, B0, B1, B2, BX, C0, C1, C2, CX, D0, D1, D2, DX, H0, H1, H2,
HX, J0, J1, J2, K1, M, S0, S1, S2
25
Element Name: Data Child element = Ref_Period_Hours
Short Description: The reference period for the employee’s paid contracted hours data.
Detailed Description: Enter ‘1’ if the paid contracted hours covers four weeks or less. Enter ‘2’
if the paid contracted hours covers the reference month. Enter ‘3’ if the paid contracted hours
covers five weeks. Enter ‘4’ if the paid contracted hours covers six weeks. Enter ‘5’ if the paid
contracted hours covers a period greater than six weeks.
N.B. If the employee is paid monthly (i.e. Frequency_Pay = ‘4’) but the contracted hours can
only be recorded on a weekly basis, then enter ‘1’ for Ref_Period_Hours and enter the 4 weeks of
contracted hours (i.e. weekly contracted hours multiplied by 4) under ‘Contracted_Hours’. The
CSO will then convert the four weeks of paid contracted hours into monthly paid contracted
hours so that the paid contracted hours will correspond to the gross monthly earnings, i.e.
(Gross_Earnings).
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 1 to 5. Default to 1. No decimal places. No
spaces.
Element Name: Data Child element = Contracted_Hours
Short Description: Number of contracted hours paid to the employee during the reference
month.
Detailed Description: Enter the total number of contracted hours paid to the employee during the
reference month. Paid contracted hours are defined as the normal working hours of the
employee, usually specified in an oral or written contract of employment, and should exclude
main meal breaks but include short rest periods or refreshment breaks. The number of hours to
be entered here is the total number of hours paid to the employee during the reference month,
excluding overtime hours, regardless of whether these hours are worked or not worked, e.g.
include all paid sick hours, paid maternity hours etc.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0.0 to 999.9. No spaces. Round to one
decimal place.
Element Name: Data Child element = Overtime_Hours
Short Description: Number of overtime hours paid to the employee during the reference month.
Detailed Description: Enter the number of overtime hours paid to the employee in the reference
month. Only those hours that have corresponding pay paid in overtime earnings should be
included. Exclude any additional hours worked without specific remuneration. Time off in lieu of
unpaid work or overtime is not regarded as overtime in this instance.
Validation Rules: A required numeric field. Range 0.0 to 999.9. No spaces. Round to one
decimal place.
Element: Data. Child element = Addr1_Employee
Short Description: Address line 1 of the sampled employee
Detailed Description: The first line of the employee’s address, if different from the company
address. This field will only be used if the employer wants the employee questionnaire (sent to all
sampled employees) to go to an address other than the company’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
26
Element: Data. Child element = Addr2_Employee
Short Description: Address line 2 of the sampled employee
Detailed Description: The second line of the employee’s address if different from the company
address. This field will only be used if the employer wants the employee questionnaire (sent to all
sampled employees) to go to an address other than the company’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Data. Child element = Addr3_Employee
Short Description: Address line 3 of the sampled employee
Detailed Description: The third line of the employee’s address if different from the company
address. This field will only be used if the employer wants the employee questionnaire (sent to all
sampled employees) to go to an address other than the company’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Data. Child element = Addr4_Employee
Short Description: Address line 4 of the sampled employee
Detailed Description: The fourth line of the employee’s address if different from the company
address. This field will only be used if the employer wants the employee questionnaire (sent to all
sampled employees) to go to an address other than the company’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element: Data. Child element = Addr5_Employee
Short Description: Address line 5 of the sampled employee
Detailed Description: The fifth line of the employee’s address if different from the company
address. This field will only be used if the employer wants the employee questionnaire (sent to all
sampled employees) to go to an address other than the company’s address.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field; Maximum length of 80 characters
Element Name: NES. Child element = Comment
Short Description: Comments to help interpret the data provided.
Detailed Description: Enter here any comments that will help the CSO to interpret the data
provided. To avoid queries from the CSO, this field should be used to explain any significant
figures, extreme values or any other comments the data provider believes may prove useful in
understanding the data.
Validation Rules: An optional alpha numeric field. Maximum length 255 characters.
27
PART 7: SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR PROGRAMMERS:
Q1: What is the CSO’s policy on rounding?
A1: Round to the nearest Euro (i.e.  0 .49999 round down;  0.50000, round up). E.g. An
employee with annual earnings of €24,570.51 should be rounded up to €24,571.
Q2: How do we record employees that work on paid public holidays as opposed to those
employees who do not work on public holidays?
A2: Where an employee does not work but is paid for a public holiday (the normal arrangement),
the amount of pay and the corresponding hours should be entered as if they were worked. The
treatment of employees entitled to take leave on a public holiday, e.g. the October bank holiday
Monday, but actually worked the holiday, depends on how the extra payment for working the
holiday is dealt with. If it is treated as a shift payment, then the payment should be included in
‘Annual_Earnings’ and ‘Irregular_Bonuses’ (note: only include in ‘Irregular_Bonuses’ if a shift
allowance is not paid at each pay period). If the payment is made during the reference month,
then it should also be included under ‘Gross_Earnings’ and ‘Shift_Allowance’. However, if the
extra time worked is being treated as overtime, then the relevant hours and earnings should be
entered as overtime earnings and overtime hours (i.e. entered under ‘Annual_Earnings’ and, if
paid during the reference month, also entered under ‘Gross_Earnings’, ‘Overtime_Earnings’ and
‘Overtime_Hours’.
Q3: How do we deal with flexi-time working arrangements?
A3: Any variation in actual hours worked because of a flexible working arrangement should be
ignored. Thus, no adjustment should be made to ‘Paid_Holidays’, ‘Paid_Hours’ etc for flexi-time.
Q4: How are on-call allowances dealt with?
A4: Some employees get a regular allowance for being available for work outside regular hours.
This allowance is part of bonuses and allowances. If the employee is actually called into work
then the extra pay for this is treated as overtime and the hours they work as overtime hours. Thus,
if the shift allowance and overtime is paid during the reference month, then the overtime pay and
overtime hours should be entered under ‘Gross_Earnings’, ‘Overtime_Earnings’ and
‘Overtime_Hours’ respectively. The shift allowance will also be included under
‘Shift_Allowance’. The total of the shift allowance and the overtime will also be included under
‘Annual_Earnings’. If the shift allowance and overtime is not paid during the reference month
both the shift allowance and overtime will be included under ‘Annual_Earnings’. If the shift
allowances is an irregular allowance, it will also be included under ‘Irregular_Bonuses’.
Q5: How should people who leave or join the enterprise during the reference month be treated?
A5: These people meet the criteria for employees and should be included in the population from
which the sample will be drawn. If this person is selected for the sample, then the earnings and
equivalent hours relating to their employment with the employer who is completing the NES
should be included for the reference year and reference month.
28
Q6: What is done with people who have no PPS number?
A6: There are some cases where a person may not yet have any PPS number. Use the
Id_Reference variable to give this person a unique id number or identifier.
Q7: How are employees on strike to be treated?
A7: If employees continue to receive payments from their employer as normal then they should
be treated as if they were at work, i.e. their annul and monthly earnings (Annual_Earnings and
Gross_Earnings etc) and paid hours (Paid_Hours) are not affected, but the total number of hours
paid to an employee on strike should be entered under ‘Other_Absence’. If the employees were
not paid for the strike hours then their paid hours should be reduced to bring them into line with
their reduced annual and monthly earnings. The key principle is that the reduced monthly
earnings should be consistent with paid hours.
Q8: Employees who move from one employment category to another, e.g. a promotion from a
clerical job to a managerial position?
A8: Ideally the person should be coded with the most common employment category during the
reference month, e.g. if the person was only promoted at the end of the reference month then it
would be the employment category at the beginning of the month that should be included.
However, in the absence of this possibility, the employment category at the beginning or end of
the quarter may be used.
Q9: How are pay arrears and pay advances dealt with?
A9: All pay arrears for periods before the reference month and/or pay advances for future pay
periods after the reference month are to be excluded from all figures.
Q10: How do we deal with employees who are paid monthly but work a set number of hours per
week (or per fortnight or per 4-week period)?
A10: Many employees are paid on a monthly basis but work a weekly pattern of hours. In this
case record the monthly earnings as monthly (i.e. Ref _Period_Pay = 2).
If no adjustment has been made to the contracted hours (Contracted_Hours) for the monthly pay
pattern, i.e. if what is entered under ‘Contracted_Hours’ are the weekly contracted hours
multiplied by 4, then provided that ‘1’ is entered under Ref_Period_Hours, the CSO will convert
the four weekly contracted hours into monthly contracted hours. Record overtime hours so that it
corresponds to the overtime earnings (if any) included in the gross monthly earnings figure.
Q11: How do we treat people on sick leave?
A11: The treatment of such employees depends on their pay arrangements when sick. If the
employee is paid at their normal rate of pay for the-duration of sick leave, then the appropriate
hours and earnings are included as parts of paid hours (Paid_Hours), gross earnings
(Gross_Earnings) (if the period of paid sick leave falls within the reference month) and annual
earnings (Annual_Earnings) respectively. The amount of paid sick leave, converted into hours,
must also be included in ‘Other_Absence’.
29
Q12: How to treat people taking leave-in-lieu?
A12: For the purpose of this survey, all leave in lieu should be ignored. If an employee works
additional hours and take time off at a later stage rather than getting paid for them, no adjustment
should be made to ‘Overtime_Hours’, ‘Paid_Hours’ or ‘Other Absence’, etc. -
30
PART 8: VALIDITATION RULES AT FILE LEVEL:
Sample Information
Total_Sample should be equal to the number of sampled employees.
General Employee Data
PPS variable
If the PPS number is given, the first 7 characters must be numeric and followed by 1 or 2 alpha
characters.
Employee Data for the year:
Annual Earnings
Annual_Earnings must be greater than or equal to the sum of Irregular_Bonuses and
Annual_Benefit_In_Kind.
Employee Data for the Reference Period (4 Weeks or 1 Month):
Gross Earnings and Hours
If Gross_Earnings is greater than zero then Contracted_Hours must be greater than zero.
If Gross_Earnings is zero then Contracted_Hours must be zero.
Contracted_Hours must be greater than or equal to Overtime_Hours.
Basic earnings per hour for professional and managerial employees must be a minimum of €7 per
hour and a maximum of €120 per hour for Contracted_Hours.
If Employment_Type  3 & Status_Code <= 24 then: (Gross_Earnings - Overtime_Earnings) /
Contracted_Hours) must be greater than or equal to €7 and less than or equal to €120.
Basic earnings per hour for other employees must be a minimum of €7 per hour and a maximum
of €80 per hour for Contracted_Hours.
If Employment_Type  3 & Status_Code >= 31 then: (Gross_Earnings - Overtime_Earnings) /
Contracted_Hours) must be greater than or equal to €7 and less than or equal to €80.
If Ref_Hours=1 then Contracted_Hours must be less than 240.
If Ref_Hours=2 then Contracted_Hours must be less than 260.
If Ref_Hours=3 then Contracted_Hours must be less than 300.
If Ref_Hours=4 then Contracted_Hours must be less than 360.
31
Total_Commission, Shift_Allowance and Overtime_Earnings
Gross_Earnings must be greater than the sum of Total_Commission, Shift_Allowance and
Overtime_Earnings
Overtime Earnings and Hours
If Overtime_Earnings is zero then Overtime_Hours must be zero.
If Overtime_Earnings is greater than zero then Overtime_Hours must be greater than zero.
If Overtime_Hours is greater than zero then Overtime_Earnings must be greater than zero.
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PART 9: INSTRUCTIONS ON THE USE OF CSO’S SECURE DEPOSIT BOX.
Note – This is for information purposes only. If you wish to use this facility, please contact
this Office in order to be set up with a username and password.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) Secure Deposit Box is a mechanism for you to lodge
statistical files or text to the appropriate CSO survey area via a secure link to the CSO website.
Example only:
Username
Below is the username that you should use for sending information to the CSO. Your password
will be sent separately within the next day or two.
Username: BLOGGS JOE
Survey name
Below is the name(s) of the CSO survey(s) that you are providing information for:
Survey = National Employment Survey
Accessing the secure link to the CSO website
To send information securely to the CSO via the Internet, you will need to go to the Internet
address (URL) https://lodgedata.cso.ie
Logging in
You will need to enter your username and password in the relevant spaces and click on the
‘Login’ button.
Note: The password is case sensitive. If you do not enter the username and password correctly
you will receive a message advising you that you were unsuccessful in accessing the website.
You have a limited number of attempts to login.
If you are unsuccessful in accessing the website, please contact the CSO staff member who
arranged the electronic lodgement for you.
Welcome page
After logging in, you will reach the welcome page. This page has some background information
on the Secure Deposit Box and allows you to navigate to the data lodgement page.
Note: Clicking on the ‘Cancel and go to CSO Home Page’ will take you to the CSO Home Page
(www.cso.ie)
Data lodgement page
The data lodgement page provides the functionality for you to lodge data files and textual
information to the CSO. There are three steps to take when submitting data:
Select the name of the survey you are providing data for by clicking on the drop down arrow next
to ‘CSO Survey Name’.
Attach your survey data either as a file using the ‘Browse’ button to locate the file (only one file
can be attached per lodgement) or as text in the box ‘Enter Textual Data’. You can also use the
text box to add any comments you wish to send with the attached file or to give feedback on the
Secure Deposit Box.
Press the ‘Lodge Data’ button to complete the data lodgement.
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Thank you page
After lodging your data and/or text you will get a message to confirm that the data has been
lodged.
Note: Clicking on the ‘Click here to lodge another data file’ will allow you to lodge another data
file.
Exiting
To exit the system, close down the thank you page.
Further information
If you have a question about the CSO Secure Deposit Box you can:
1) Send an e-mail to nes2007@cso.ie; or
2) Phone Locall 1890 313 414 (ROI) Ext.5016.
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