Deduct from Pay - Cell Phone usage

Kymm

We have quite a few employees with Nextels... they are allowed to use them for personal use as well, however, they are not to go above the plan limit per month. IF they do, they are expected to reimburse the company. If they do not, can we deduct the amount from a paycheck? And if the employee terminates, could we deduct the amount from their final pay? This is, of course, if we have all employees sign a Phone Policy form that has "all of the above" in writing and they consent to it. I am also speaking of a company located in CA... :-(
Thank you.

Carey

Since you are speaking of employees in CA, the answer to all the questions is no. Any deductions from wages must be authorized in writing by the employee and that authorization must be made at the time of the deduction ("contemporaneous" is the word used by the attorneys). You should still have the policy in place, but when they incur personal expenses you would have to then get them to authorize the payroll deductions. It's much easier to do with current employees than when terminating - they have little incentive to sign off on the deduction, thinking the company probably won't pursue it in court. Been down this road many times.

Rockie

What would probably hurt current employees the most is taking away their phone privileges, at least until, they "PAY UP". This also would help alleviate the problem of departing employees running up a big bill and not paying it.

Just a thought!