As repoeted by The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This summer, housekeeping employees working in residence halls will not receive overtime pay for mandatory Saturday work.

As the UNC Department of Housing and Residential Education faced the costs of hosting C-TOPS sessions and other summer camps, it began to assess cost issues, said Dick Mann, vice chancellor of finance and administration.

"I am sure that there are employees who are unhappy, but Housing is trying to hold down costs," Mann said.

The department approached Director of Housekeeping Services Bill Burston to negotiate a cost-effective solution for its revenue shortfall.

The result of this exchange is a new policy, announced in January, in which housekeeping employees maintain a 40-hour work week from Tuesday to Saturday but are not paid overtime for their weekend work.

By implementing a policy of no overtime pay, the department and housekeeping administrators are able to save money while maintaining a schedule suitable for C-TOPS and other summer camps.

While grounds and maintenance workers are also under the Facility Services umbrella, only housekeepers are subject to this new policy.

In addition to the lack of overtime pay for Saturday work, housekeepers have also complained that temporary workers, who have been hired in past summers to help with the workload, were not hired for this summer.

"We have always had temps and overtime - it takes all this to get the work done - and now we don't have any temps or overtime, but they expect us to do the same amount of work," said James Holman, a housekeeping employee who works in Ram Village Apartments.

As some housekeeping employees find it difficult to arrange and pay for child care and transportation on Saturdays, many end up losing money by working on the weekend, Holman said.

"They are the lowest paid employees on campus, and many have second jobs," said David Brannigan, chairman of the staff relations and management committee for the Employee Forum.

"Many have to make care arrangements," he said. "Many have commitments in their church or community, and this is a massive imposition on them."

Holman, who has worked in housekeeping for four years, originally brought the issue to the attention of the Employee Forum and spearheaded a petition against it.

More than 60 housekeeping employees have signed the petition in the hopes that their concerns will be addressed by their managers.