RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Several Richmond Public Schools (RPS) employees said a payroll mistake has left them confused about whether they're still owed money and when they'll get it. The situation dates back to the summer when the District’s office associates (OA) signed a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with RPS leaders that went into effect in July 2024. According to the CBA’s Staffing section, “all schools shall be staffed with at least two employees who are office associates and/or administrative associates.” The CBA’s Compensation and Benefits section also states that “in circumstances of vacancy or employee absence of more than five business days, employees who perform extra duties shall be paid a stipend of 10% of their base pay. Such stipend will be paid until the vacancy is filled or [the] absent employee returns to work.” But until this month, most OAs still hadn't received that stipend,  including a small group of OAs that have been working by themselves all year. According to RPS, there was an “accidental overpay” in the Dec. 9 paycheck to all OAs, even those who didn't qualify for it. In an effort to correct the error, RPS deducted the amount of the stipend from all OAs in their Dec. 18 paychecks. That reversal left some qualified OAs without their stipend since the beginning of the school year.  RPS provided a statement regarding the payroll mistake: “In the process of implementing a new contractual provision, RPS accidentally applied the 10-percent bonus to all office associates, not just qualifying school-based OAs. To ensure that employees were made whole before the holiday break, we made an adjustment to the Dec. 18th payroll. For 10 employees, this included a lump-sum payment, which they were entitled to after covering for a colleague in the fall. Moving forward, pay for one-time coverage will be applied on a rolling basis. A small handful of office associates are the sole OA at their schools, and they receive a 10-percent bump to base pay as a result. Those employees can expect to see their additional pay applied throughout the rest of the school year.”   Richmond Education Association President Anne Forrester weighed in on how this mistake affects the ability of OAs to keep up with existing bills and expenses. “A lot of these folks work multiple jobs, you know, two and three jobs,” Forrester said. “They do DoorDash, they do Lyft, they work on weekends. And here we are clawing that money back right before the holidays, especially to people who are entitled to it.” 8News also acquired a statement from an anonymous OA affected by the mistake. "The breakdown in RPS is the lack of communication. What happened to the AOA/OAs was unfortunate and couldn't have happened at the worst time. But the error was not on payroll because they only process what is submitted to them from department/school-based timekeepers and what is keyed in by the Talent Office and that is where the error occurred.”  RPS said those who don't start getting their extra pay until Jan. 15, 2025, will receive their current pay and stipend plus their back pay spread out over future paychecks.