Charge EE for replacement of cell phone - HELP

lnelson

We are in process of getting new cell phones for all ee's who require them for the job. We are also implimenting a contract between employer and employee in reguards to them being responsible for the cell phones and if lost or damaged they will be charged for them. Is this acceptable or our we responsible as a cost of doing business?

HR in CA

The only way an employee can be charged is if you have prove the loss was willfull on the employee's part. I was told by our legal eagles, this is almost impossible to prove.

lnelson

Hr in CA,
What about the damage to the phones? Only if was intentional?
Even if the ee agrees to sign this document with the knowledge they will be charge for the phones. Should it be based on the circumstances of the loss or damage? Or not addressed at all?

HR in CA

The same would apply. We were told that employees could be asked to pay a deposit on the front end for loss and/or damages, but since we already had the phones, we didn't use this option.

blw

We have twice collected for lost or damaged cell phones. We haven't had any problem; we spread into 3 or 4 deductions for the employee. The sign the Equipment Agreement when they get the cell phone with the cost identified.

gillian2

This type of agreement won't pass muster in California. It is a cost of doing business - if you want to use some sort of corrective action for people who keep messing up you can certainly do that.

Pork

INELSON: We do in the case of pagers; the first one is replaced at company expense but with a full understanding and agreement that the individual is responsible and accountable for all thereafter.

A more important aspect of this cell phone is for the personal use of same for all calls not related to work! We do give the traveling person the right to use his minutes to call home each night to let the family know where he/she is. This should never be posted as a call greater than 3 minutes or it starts to raise interest in listing and looking at all of the calls for this phone. For this reason I never remove the cell phone from the vehicle mount, therefore, any loss will be because someone broke into the car and stole it.

PORK

Balloonman

Pork,
I just took away a phone for excessive personal usage! Employee was bent and also had to pay back over $90.00. This was not the first time I have had the discussion with him. He will get the phone back, but it will be radio only when he does. He is none to happy with me, when in reality he should be looking in the mirror, that is the fool who caused him the problem.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

lnelson

Thanks for the replies, before handing out anything I wanted to double check if what I thought was right or not. We will still hand out a cell phone contract ( for lack of a better word) but, instead of monetary pay back put in disciplinary wording. Thanks again.

dodaniel

Suggestion:

Have the employees go and purchase the cell phones themselves then submitt an expense report for reimbursement. Each month the employee submitss his/her phone bill for reimbursement. Since the phone is in the employee's name he/she will be more careful with the phone because they do not want to have to pay the replacement costs or the very high contract cancellation fees. We have found that this works a lot better on controling the number of lost or damaged units.

marc

We use an equipment requisition form that has the ee agreeing to payroll deduction for loss or damage. Decision is up to the IT person to determine how to handle. We will ordinarily replace it once before making them pay.