Overpayment of Wages
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We recently discovered that an employee who received a temporary salary adjustment in 2000 to go on an assignment, never got the adjustment taken off his record, so received an overpayment of wages of about $25,000 during the past three years. I would think there are laws that cover this in CA, but I can only find a DLSE opinion letter from 1999 that kind of covers it. It just says we can't deduct for it, that we would have to consider it a debt, which I understand. However, are there any restrictions on how far back we could go in considering the debt and requesting repayment? Should we try to recover the entire amount, only go back one year? This is a long term employee, probably close to retirement. It is the company's fault, but he probably should have realized the adjustment was never taken off.
Hoping Hatchetman will weigh in on this one!
Thanks.
Hoping Hatchetman will weigh in on this one!
Thanks.
Comments
Chari
I would look to recover the last year, going back further though you may be able to legally will look pretty heartless. I know he should have said something. But also you (the company) should have caught it too.
Just my $0.02 worth.
DJ THe Balloonman
It looks like the approval for his adjustment back in 2000 was done as an exception, so it didn't go through the regular process, which is probably why it wasn't reversed when it should have been.
My recommendation will be to go back maybe one year because he'll have to revise his tax return for 2003 or file an amended return if he's already filed and I would hate for him to have to go back and amend two more years. We are waiting to hear back from our legal department on their recommendation. Thanks for your imput.