Overpayment

safety

We have a bereavement policy that pays an employee for three days of regular straight time pay. Our payroll coordinator just brought to my attention that in the past two years she has made a mistake on several 2nd shift ee's bereavement pay and included shift differential in the 30 hours of pay. This amounts to an average of about 11 dollars per ee and it has occurred five times. She is asking if we should make an adjustment on the next paycheck and recoup for her mistake. My initial answer was no, we made the mistake and should not deduct this amount from the next check but now I am wondering if we will be establishing a new precedence if we do not deduct this. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Down_the_Middle

I wouldn't do anything with this issue. The error was apparently inadvertent, didn't involve a large number of employees and involved minimal dollars. Precedence has no weight when trying to correct an error, so don't worry about any obligation to continue doing what's been wrong. People learn from their mistakes, fortunately this one wasn't significant.

POPEYE

I agree with D-T-M. You will have much less controversy when there is a lesser amount on the next check than if you try to take back money that is probably long ago spent.

sonny

I'd let it go.

LindaS

I would agree with the others with one exception and that is if you are covered under a CBA. If you are then you would have an issue with creating a precedent and, although it is a mistake, may have issues regarding future payments. If that is the case, I would inform the employees of the error and make the necessary adjustments and that would take care of any future issues. If this is not the case, leave the past where it belongs and make the future payments correct.

jimlegal

Agree, let it go. The minimal amount of monies you may recoup will not out weigh the potential employee relation problems recouping the money could cause.

safety

Thanks for the responses; we have decided to let-it-go and to consider this a continuous improvement exercise. Our payroll clerk is great and through her own self-audit she found the mistakes. The error occurred through the KRONOS system and in order to deduct this amount in the future a manual override needs to occur. The clerk has a bereavement file with detailed instructions that she will follow in the future and the mistake will not happen again.

Thanks again for the responses, what a great forum. x:-)