So, work ethics question...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

Say your payroll department makes a clerical error. Instead of taking hours out of the check they should have docked you, they waited until a later check and dock you all but $88. I am paid twice monthly. Since it was their clerical error, should this be OK? The people who make the rules are refusing to stretch it out over the course of a longer period of time. I know in California, they can only dock you up to what would be minimum wage, unfortunately though, I live in Oklahoma. I should have only been docked 32 Hours, but instead got docked 74 hours. I am so screwn.
Shouldn't humanity have some sort of entry into this situation? Everyone who works at my job works paycheck to paycheck. I could have lost my jeep if it weren't about to be paid off and the girl I spoke to had pity on me and extended me a month.
HOW IS THIS OK? I've been making myself sick over this whole thing.

[ZombieHorde]

1. Wow, super lame. nt

[Ken Burch]

2. It should, but it doesn't

They think they have the right to punish YOU for their mistake.

I've never understood why they aren't willing to be accomodating. It's not as if a person's always going to realize they've been overpaid, after all.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. If I had had warning, I could have prepared.

But I looked at our check stubs yesterday for Friday's check and found out. I have been up and down and in tears and back again since. And I asked my boss to see if there was anything he could do, and I think it just pissed her off. Well, if she had acted like it was a priority instead of not worth her attention, I wouldn't have had to go to my boss.

[Major Nikon]

9. Larger employers often have employee assistance organizations that can provide short term loans

in these situations. You might look into that. Sometimes these things happen where I work, but they give you plenty of notice so you have a chance to appeal any wrongful deductions.

It's kind of shitty for an employer to do this. That's why unions are so much a necessity.

[virgogal]

3. I don't think this is an ethical problem,but a legal one.

They docked you 74 hours instead of 32? Why?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

5. Because of a past clerical error...

...where they didn't take the time out.

[Travis_0004]

10. So they overpaid you on a previous check?

If so, how long ago was it, and did you notice it at the time?

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. A month?

And I did not.

[virgogal]

14. Because,according to your OP,they took out more than twice the amount that

should have been taken out.

[aikoaiko]

6. When they didn't dock you the first 32 hours in the first check, did you tell them of their error?

Or do I not understand the situation correctly? I think I read this that they were supposed to dock you 32 hours out of two successive checks, yes? But instead they docked you all the hours out of one.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

8. Indeed, that is the error.

I didn't know there was an error.

[elleng]

7. Its just wrong, whenever they do it, for whatever reason.

They should ONLY dock you the exact number of hours, regardless of how long it takes them do it.

Has nothing to do with humanity, has to do with correct accounting. Do what you can, even if you have to go over 'accounting's' head, to get them to correct this. Union there, by any chance?
Wherever you go to complain, take documents with you to demonstrate correct # hours, and actual amount docked and equivalent # hours.

VERY sorry.

[jp11]

12. It is 'okay' because there seems to be no law to prevent it from happening or policy internal to the

company to 'have a heart' and spread it out.

What I don't understand is if they overpaid you why you didn't 'save' the extra knowing they were going to 'take' it out of a check or checks in the future. When I was paid on a two week cycle I budgeted my pay to make sure I 'didn't run out' before I got paid again. Even if it is their error I'm sure they put some 'blame' on you for not noticing the overpay and reporting it or making plans to deal with them 'fixing' it by taking that overpay back later.

Anyway I keep some money 'on the side' in case of an emergency, a few bucks here and there add up, to have a cushion if something comes up.

A company's reasoning is probably they already paid you 'too much' and you've had that extra money you shouldn't have had for x days/weeks and they(probably payroll/accountants) want it back ASAP to clear the error.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. I didn't know there was a mistake.

I thought they had taken it out already. SOME had already come out. I had some emergency money. But I paid bills with it.
I still think it is shitty to not give someone notice that THEY had made a clerical error and they were taking it all out of one check.

[laundry_queen]

16. Why are the hours being docked?

What is the reason? Were you overpaid at some point in time? Did they give you an extra hour here and there and just noticed how much it added up to? There's a difference. If you received a large check you should have noticed the discrepancy and asked about it. If it was only a little bit of extra every paycheck, enough to not be totally noticeable, then they should dock you over the same amount of time they overpaid you (like if they overpaid you over the course of a year, they should take a year to take it back). How do they record time worked? Time cards? Is there a paper trail?

I know now is not the time for lectures, but please, in the future, keep your own record of your hours and your wages. Contact HR/payroll for every discrepancy. If your company is that stupid and has no controls in place for this (taking auditing controls/fraud course right now, what your company did is really REALLY inexcusable as far as accounting errors go, they could get in big shit if controls aren't in place and someone perpetrates payroll fraud) then you need to start keeping track on your own so you have some evidence if this happens again.

So sorry about your situation.

[Zax2me]

15. Not cool.

Maybe legal - but surely not cool.