This post was updated July 16 at 5:29 p.m.

A University exemption to California labor law has caused academic and mental stress for student sound technicians employed by Associated Students UCLA, echoing concerns other UC workers have brought forth in lawsuits.

The University is not required to pay the standard overtime required of labor laws in California. Instead, the University must only pay for time worked in excess of 40 hours in a week, not the standard requirement of overtime pay for time worked in excess of eight hours in a day.

Although ASCULA operates as a separate, nonprofit entity, ASUCLA social media manager Christian Manuel claimed in an emailed statement that the UC policies are still applicable for ASUCLA and it falls under the same labor law exemption.

“ASUCLA is a tax-exempt, nonprofit public benefit unincorporated Association and is a separate and distinct legal entity,” Manuel said in the statement. “At the same time, it is a unit of the University of California and subject to all applicable UC policies.”

Student sound technicians, who work for ASUCLA Event Services, are responsible for assisting with the audio visual technology used in events hosted by ASUCLA or student groups that reserve campus venues. Many are part-time employees on top of being full-time students and are only supposed to work a maximum of 20 hours a week, ASUCLA said in an emailed statement.

The standard California overtime rate is 1.5 times the base salary after the first eight hours and double after 12 hours, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations. However, when asked about providing overtime pay for 13-hour shifts, Marisa Osborne, the ASUCLA senior division manager, and Janelle Marcus, the ASUCLA payroll division manager, repeatedly said in emails to student workers that the UC is exempt from California overtime pay laws.

In April, ASUCLA student sound technicians were assigned up to 16-hour shifts without overtime pay, according to schedules provided by the sound technicians.

Some students said the long shifts have taken away from other aspects of their lives, such as school. A sound technician who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of losing their job said they have missed classes to work assigned shifts – which caused their grades to fall lower than in any other quarter they had completed at UCLA.

“I am constantly on call. I feel like I can’t really fully exit the work headspace,” they said. “I have skipped classes to go to work before, and it’s only getting worse.”

These long shifts not only affect student workers’ studies, but also prevent them from using their meal plans because of a requirement that they remain on-site during breaks in case of technology issues. In addition, meal breaks are docked from workers’ pay, said Andrew Cummings, a student sound technician and recently graduated computer science student.

“You have eight hours to sleep, and then you wake up and you’re at work all day,” said the anonymous student sound technician.

Such labor issues are not new in the UC system. In March 2000, a former UC employee sued the UC Board of Regents for failing to pay workers time-and-a-half pay after the first 40 hours of work per week. In April 2021, another former employee sued the regents, alleging that the UC had paid her less than minimum wage by rounding hours and deducting pay for lunch breaks.

The California courts of appeals that heard these cases reaffirmed that since the University is exempt from standard California labor pay policy, the University can legally refuse to pay workers overtime and can continue to dock pay for lunch breaks.

ASUCLA has resisted changing pay and working conditions despite multiple complaints from workers, Cummings said. The cost of legal action, in addition to courts’ history of siding with the UC in these labor disputes, makes it not worth it for the students to further pursue these complaints, he added.

Tobias Higbie, a professor of history and labor studies, said that even though workers being forced to take on excessive hours and being improperly compensated is not uncommon, he is surprised that such an exemption to California labor law exists.

“Student workers shouldn’t be working 15 hours a day,” Higbie said. “They should be able to organize their work calendar in a way that supports their studies.”

The sound technician said they did not feel that ASUCLA was sympathetic to students prioritizing their education.

“They just don’t really get the concept that we are also students,” they said.

When asked about overtime pay policy, ASUCLA referred in an emailed statement to the UC policy for compensation, which states that no overtime pay will be provided until the employee has worked more than 40 hours in a week. ASUCLA cited the same policy to address the lack of lunch breaks, as the UC policy says they are not required to pay employees for meal periods.

The only change is managers have told workers that they could request parts of their shift to be covered by another employee, Cummings said. However, Cummings said he doesn’t think that solution offered by ASUCLA will actually solve the issues student workers face since ASUCLA has focused on minimizing frustration rather than finding a resolution.

Cummings said it has been difficult to advocate for students’ needs while balancing academics.

“They (the managers) changed very little and are hoping that we are busy students and we don’t have the time to continue asking them and pushing them for more,” Cummings said.

While striking is an option – especially in the wake of last year’s UC-wide strike and a nationwide labor movement – student sound technicians are worried about losing their jobs since they are not unionized workers, Cummings added.

[Related: UC academic workers walk out in largest US strike since 2019]

However, student workers can still collectively push for better working conditions and pay even if they are not unionized, Higbie said. He added that they still have the right to advocate for themselves, whether that is bringing complaints to superiors or working with local unions to start organizing and become unionized.

Multiple sound technicians have left the job in the past months, the anonymous sound technician said. Regardless, they have chosen to stay because of the camaraderie with their colleagues that has formed through supporting each other in these difficult situations.

“I don’t care if they (ASUCLA) make a lot of money – I care that my friends are being overwhelmed at work,” the sound technician said. “It’s just more and more people who love each other, who are trying to look out for each other in a situation that is really negative.”