44042.5. (a) (1) When a school employer determines a wage overpayment has been made to a school employees it shall notify the employee of the overpayment and afford the employee an opportunity to respond before commencing recoupment actions. Reimbursement shall be made to the school employer through one of the following methods mutually agreed to by the employee and the school employer:
(A) Cash payment or cash installment payments.
(B) Installment payments through payroll deduction covering at least the same number of pay periods in which the error occurred. When overpayments from the employer have occurred for more than one year, the employer may require full repayment from the employee through payroll deductions over the period of one year.
(C) The adjustment of appropriate leave credits or compensating time off, provided that the overpayment involves the accrual or crediting of leave credits such as vacation, annual leave, holiday leave, or compensating time off. Any errors in sick leave balances shall only be adjusted with sick leave credits.
(2) Installment payment amounts deducted from an employee’s salary or wages pursuant to paragraph (1), except as provided in subdivision (b), shall not exceed 25 percent of the school employee’s net disposable earnings for each payroll amount.
(3) Absent mutual agreement on a method of reimbursement, the school employer shall proceed with recoupment pursuant to subparagraph (B) of paragraph (1).
(b) A school employee who is separated from employment before full repayment of the overpayment amount owed shall have an amount sufficient to provide full repayment withheld from any money owed to the employee upon separation. If the amount of money owed to the employee upon separation is insufficient to provide full reimbursement to the school employer, the school employer shall have the right to exercise any and all other legal means to recover the additional amount owed.
(c) An administrative action shall not be taken by the school employer pursuant to this section to recover an overpayment unless the action is initiated within three years from the date of overpayment. If an overpayment involves leave credits, the date of overpayment is the date that the school employee receives compensation in exchange for leave erroneously credited to the employee. For purposes of this section, leave hours are considered exchanged for compensation in the order they were credited.
(d) If the provisions of this section are in conflict with the provisions of a memorandum of understanding reached pursuant to Chapter 10.7 (commencing with Section 3540) of Division 4 of Title 1 of the Government Code, the memorandum of understanding shall be controlling without further legislative action, except that if the provisions of a memorandum of understanding require the expenditure of funds, the provisions shall not become effective unless approved by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act.
(e) For purposes of this section, “school employer” means the applicable administrative entity of any of the following:
(1) School district.
(2) County office of education.
(3) Charter school.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 571, Sec. 23. (AB 185) Effective September 27, 2022.)
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