Supervisor mistake

HR in CA

I have employees on piece rate. Some how there was a verbal miscommunication to an employee from the supervisor quoting the price of a particular task. Well to make a long story short, the price was so wrong, it exceeds what we the company are paid for this task by our customer. Employee, who has performance and teamwork issues is mad and wants his 'quoted' rate. However, employee has been doing the job long enough to know that what was quoted was 'too good to be true'. At no time did the employee earn less than twice the California minimum wage, so that is not an issue. The employee refuses to accept that the supervisor made a mistake.

Are we obligated to pay the misquoted rate? Opinions please!

Gillian3

I don't think so. If we were all obligated to go with all the things that supervisors say (errors and all) we would all be in trouble. The real issue is whether or not the statement was a contract. Whether it is or not is a legal issue argued among lawyers, and if the employee wants to make it one, the employee will have to find an attorney willing to take you on. The chance of that is probably pretty slim. Tell the employee that if you did this on all your jobs no one would have a job and let the supervisor know that his improper advice was unacceptable.