Authorization to Deduct $

ljohnson

We implemented our first policy manual effective April 1. The last page is a signature sheet (I understand the policies contained in this manual blah blah blah) and also contains an authorization to deduct funds owed by the employee to the company.

I included the second clause based on advice I received from a Nebraksa employment lawyer at a training session put on by a national well-known training firm. It was probably a year or two ago that I attended.

Due to morale and communication problems that I knew nothing about (I started working here in December), employees went bezerk about that clause, thinking their paychecks were going to start being short because we were deducting money to throw a party (or whatever).

Now, the more I read on the forum, the concensus seems to be that employees have to specifically authorize amounts and etc. to be deducted. I think I'm pretty well sunk on enforcing this - any suggestions for damage control? Do we just let it go? Ugh.

Side note - every employee signed the sheet and initialed the authorization (after some discussion) save one employee, who also does not use company tools. Our president said to freeze his wage, I don't know how I feel about that. Suggestions here?

Thanks in advance.

marc

It is also my understanding that these vague, general deduction authorizations are not proper. You might be able to tinker with the authorization to be more descriptive about the items that could lead to a deduction, such as a tool list with prices. That would be specific enough to enforce. Also keep in mind that any paycheck cannot be below minimum wage.

As to the EE who would not sign, why is he still working there? The wage freeze is one message, was this written up and discussed with him? It is pointless to have a disciplinary action that the EE does not know about.

ljohnson

I was hoping you'd weigh in, Marc - you seem to know a little about this. They actually sign a separate form regarding their tools.

The wage freeze was discussed with him, but I have wanted to wait to put it in writing until I did a little more information gathering.

Incidentally, an employee I caught riding a pallet jack like a scooter on Tuesday is getting a day off without pay NEXT Tuesday. I'm not sure if it is good or bad news that he probably would have called in anyway to extend his long weekend.

Actually, I'm somewhat pleased that the supervisor is taking some action instead of just "talking to him about it", albeit rather delayed and perhaps ineffective action.

bely

I'm in Omaha ... for years this has been discussed because the statute is prett simple:
[url]http://statutes.unicam.state.ne.us/Corpus/statutes/chap48/R4812030.html[/url]

The rule of thumb - on the form make sure you have a list of identified item(s) and a value assigned ... for instance ... check out 1 hard hat at a value of $15.00. If person fails to return they agree the assigned value will be withheld from next scheduled check to maximum allowed by law and any addition $ owed will be paid by emloyee to employer within (10-15-30 days, whatever you want to specify) ... in other words - you need to identify what the deduction may be for and how much the value is .. does this help?

Don D

It's too late to give you this advice now, but you should have suspended him on Wednesday or Thursday of next week. I think you've just thrown the rabbit into the briar patch.