BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Some teachers at Baton Rouge Community
College (BRCC) thought they got a raise. Tuesday morning the school told them
it was all a big mistake and they would have to return the money.
For years, most teachers
in Louisiana have been asking for a pay raise. Twenty five percent of the BRCC
faculty got one, only it wasn't announced. Now they find out it wasn't theirs
to keep.
Special Assistant to the
Chancellor Steve Mitchell says it affected teachers who teach nine months
during the year and opt to have their payments spread out over twelve months.
"There was an overpayment
in the paychecks that faculty were paid a higher amount than should have been
spread out over that 12 months. So they were actually overpaid during that time
period, from January to August," said Mitchell.
He says BRCC's Human
Resource Department discovered the error last weekend. Tuesday morning school
administrators told teachers, without question, they would have to pay back the
difference.
"It's state law. We're not
able to give those funds out as a state agency, state law requires that we
recoup those funds," said Mitchell.
As for how much additional
pay each teacher received, or how the error occurred, Mitchell says it is too
soon to tell.
"We're going to look at
state law, state policy, how it affects how we do business and be as flexible
as we possibly can with each individual because we know that could be a painful
process and we want to make it as painless as possible," said Mitchell.
Mitchell says the error
affected an estimated 100 faculty members. There is still no word on how much
the error cost the school.
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