Legal questions, employment related....

Today I got an email from our CFO at work. It said that two deposits from 5/15 and 5/17 were never deposited in the bank and I am being held responsible for the funds. He had a form attached for me to sign and return stating he can take the funds from my pay, which I did not sign. Here are my questions.... Can they legally take the funds if I do not sign the authorization form? If they still withhold funds without the authorization to I have an recourse to get the money? And, no, I did not take the money.

As your employer, he can probably withhold pay for a variety of reasons with or without your consent. I think you need to address the root cause, first. Do you have any record of the transactions or any way to prove that the funds are not lost as a result of your actions?

Unless a statute says otherwise (and I doubt it does), he cannot withhold past earnings without your consent. It's a breach of contract. He can however fire you for not agreeing to it, lower your pay to make the money back, or press charges with the police.

I agree with Yuri though that you need to get to the root cause of this. How much money are we talking about here anyway?

$1041

I have told him I refuse to sign anything and want to see bank deposit records and cashout logs. I had actually put in my 2 weeks notice a few hours prior to this happening, however I am told that he did not know this yet (which I doubt).

Man that sucks. Best of luck Demon...

If the situation is unrecoverable, walk off the job and tell him he can keep the money you'd have earned for the remainder of the two weeks.

I certainly wouldn't use that as my first course of action, though. Sounds like you're basically being accused of theft; last thing you need is to get arrested, or just as bad your new employer to hear of this. Find out WTF happened!

I have accounted for one of the missing deposits. I found a computer error with the cashout. So one down, one to go.

Yeah--- good thing that you're quitting. That kind of irresponsible response from that boss indicates that they are prone to over-reaction to issues.


And as for cash withholding--- that widely varies state to state. In some states they can't touch your paycheck without your express consent or a legal judgment.

Don't sign anything, even at separation, that you aren't absolutely sure you are required by law to sign. Keep helping them find their mistake. Ride out your time if you can do so without risk.

Consult a lawyer. Most of the time a lawyer will do an initial consult for free. Call the local BAR for a referral to one that specializes in labor law-- specifically protecting workers from companies.

Found a way out of the second one.... Our company policy states that the person opening the store is responsible for making the previous days deposit, which is prepared and put in an envelope by whomever closes the previous evening. I just checked the cash/deposit log and found that the person who closed that night entered the full count as $200 and the after deposit count as $200. That right there shows that a deposit was never prepared. I can't be expected to deposit something that isn't there.

Okay--- so now you are clear of that, in theory. The next thign you have to ask yourself: is it worth the risk for you to stick around a place that was so eager to burn you over 2 simple accounting oversights?

I'd have to be pretty hard up not to terminate my employment at the end of the night and never return if I was treated in the fashion you have been. Clearly this place didn't even do a basic check of the books before accusing you of incompetence or theft and trying to get you to agree to pay them a grand.

It all depends on the state. In NH an employer cann't withhold any amount for any reason from an employees check without their approval. So it is up to the employee to give their approval, which almost never happens.

That CFO knew. Whenever someone puts in their notice, word gets around quick! The best revenge is to stay for your remaining days, put on a big smile, do nothing but act like you're working, and collect your paycheck. Bastards. Like others have said, I wouldn't sign anything! Although states vary, in general, employers cannot withold pay. You can always make an anonymous call to your state's dept. of labor with questions.

Sounds like the CFO is a glorified ****ty accountant.

Looks to me like they were hoping you'd just say "F it" and leave right then and there after the accusation. Good deal on finding the money and finding a better job. If I were you, I would really want to leave, but I would stay just to annoy them for two more weeks.

That doesn't make sense though. If they wanted him to leave they could have simply said "Thanks for your resignation. We'll elect not to participate in the 2 week transition and out process you right now instead. Thanks! We'll mail you your check next payday. Bye!"

No need to trump up BS accusations that were apparently so thin that they were easily disproven using the company's books and a little skull sweat.

Not knowing anything about the job or responsibilities, this could be the case...

As soon as the notice was put in, the CFO was told to check any moneys-related areas of responsibilities associated with you, both past (to see if that's why you're leaving all of a sudden) and future... to watch you like a hawk for the next 2 weeks. So, he found those 2 missing moneys and immediately blamed you, without thinking of other possibilities or looking further into it.

I am faxing a copy of the log this morning followed by a phone call to let him know this is not my problem and the responsibility lies solely on my coworker. I plan on sticking around the last two weeks. While I don't need the income from the two weeks, it would still be nice to have.

menschmaschine said:

Not knowing anything about the job or responsibilities, this could be the case...

As soon as the notice was put in, the CFO was told to check any moneys-related areas of responsibilities associated with you, both past (to see if that's why you're leaving all of a sudden) and future... to watch you like a hawk for the next 2 weeks. So, he found those 2 missing moneys and immediately blamed you, without thinking of other possibilities or looking further into it.

Click to expand...

Good point. And, in fact, he may not have been told why he was doing it. His instructions may merely have been 'can you look into any financial irregularities that may e attributable to Mr. demon please?'


However, the fact that the 2 he found were easily explained shows a certain amount of incompetence and suggests there may be malice involved.

I'm an attorney, and although it's true that whether he can touch your pay or not depends on state law, the fact that he wanted your permission to do it tells me that he probably needs it. The other thing is that most states have laws prohibiting an employer from taking earned money without consent or a court order because without such protections, employers can avoid paying people by trumping up reasons to dock people. Call your states employment security commission to find out. I'm betting that he was trying to get you to quit and didn't want to fire you and risk having to pay unemployment benefits. Definately do your job, but realize that he has essentially shown his cards. In other words, if managment is rude to you, without being insubordinate, don't fear any reprecussions for telling them what you think because you already know that they don't want to fire you.

Here is your states employment security commission's website:

http://www.ides.state.il.us/individual/default.asp

Although I highly, highly doubt that they can dock your paycheck without either consent or a court order, the information would be more accurate and reiliable from them than from any of us.