LSU overpaid 14 residential assistants in the Horseshoe dormitories between $200 and $575 and is requiring them to pay back the money or work additional hours.
“After reviewing fall semester payments to RAs who work in the Horseshoe, we discovered that some of the RAs were paid twice for some of their desk shifts,” said Catherine David, the associate director of communications and development of Residential Life, in an email statement to the Reveille.
The R.A.’s learned of the scenario and their options for repayment through their direct supervisor and two members of the departmental leadership at their weekly staff meeting on March 6, David said.
The R.A.’s were required to sign a contract due back to the residence coordinator a week later on March 13. The Reveille acquired the contract through a public records request, which is pictured below.
While R.A.’s were given the option to work additional hours, they aren’t allowed to work more than five additional hours per week. Graduating R.A.’s had until May 17 to accumulate the funds, and non-graduating R.A.’s have until Aug. 1, according to the contract.
David said all R.A.’s received a raise last year related to their stipends.
“With that raise, we restructured RA responsibilities to include working 4 hours of their average 20 hours a week at one of our departmental service desks,” David said. “Those four hours that are worked every week are paid through the RA stipend payments. Unfortunately, we discovered that a small number of our RAs were also paid hourly for those four required hours during fall semester resulting in a double payment.”
An R.A.’s perspective
Greg, a Horseshoe R.A. affected by the overpayment, told the Reveille he was disappointed in the situation. He spoke to the Reveille on the condition of anonymity to protect his employment and is being referred to by a pseudonym.
Greg said the overpayment occurred because the supervisors promised the R.A.’s a raise if they worked four additional hours per week behind the Evangeline Hall front desk. The R.A.’s asked their supervisors if they needed to log the hours, to which they were told yes, Greg said. At the March 6 meeting, the supervisors told the R.A.’s that they were logging their hours incorrectly.
The overpayment occurred because the hours were already included in the R.A. stipend, but the supervisors instructed the R.A.’s to still log them, Greg said.
“I feel disappointed in the fact that as RAs we do so much for the community in ensuring that residents are receiving the resources and support they need to make their first-year experiences as best as possible.” Greg said. ”And to have a supervisor sit in the room with us and fail to take accountability for her mistake made me disappointed in residential life.”
A lawyer’s perspective
Employment attorney Robert Landry said accidental overpayments are not illegal, and employers have the right to follow up and ask for the money back, he said. If there was malicious intent and the money was kept, then it would be illegal.
“Things happen in the workplace,” Landry said. “People get overpaid. People get underpaid. Generally, it gets worked out.”
The National Labor Relations Act gives private employees the right to talk about terms and conditions of employment, Landry said. Because R.A.’s are public sector employees, it isn’t illegal for the supervisors to ask the R.A.’s to not gossip or talk about the situation.
“It does not cover public sector employees,” Landry said. “So that would be, you know, employees of state, federal and local governments and their subdivisions.”
