Employee Travel
pwilliamson
14 Posts
We have an employee (in VA) who was scheduled to travel to a customer location for work and plane tickets and all arrangements have been made. The employee has had a personal situation come up and can't go on the trip. We will need to have another employee take his place and there could be a change fee from the airline. Can we charge the 1st employee with this fee?
Comments
Do you have a travel policy that states that if a change is made then the employee will be charged? Has this employee signed a document understanding this policy?
My answer to your question is no. There are very few things that an employer can take out of a person's paycheck that are legal, and if you don't have a doucment signed from the employee understanding these deductions then it is even harder for it to pass the legal test. Viriginia does not have a very good wage and hour website that some of the other states do that would help answer these questions. Do a search for the Viriginia Wage Payment Act. Basically this act says that an employer is prohibited from withholding any part of wages except for things like withholding taxes and a select few other things in the absence of the written and signed consent of the employee. And then even with the signed consent there are only certain things you can withhold wages for.
One other question for you - would you charge the employee if the company made the change and had to pay change fees because another employee was needed on this trip instead of the 1st employee originally booked? I say you chalk this up to the cost of doing business, especially with airline travel these days and all the fees they charge you.
[...]There are very few things that an employer can take out of a person's paycheck that are legal, and if you don't have a doucment signed from the employee understanding these deductions then it is even harder for it to pass the legal test.[/quote]
Bingo.
Also, as IT, said -- you should chalk this up to a cost of doing business. If the employee has done something wrong, then discipline them accordingly. Charging them money is tough and often risky to do. Almost every conflict of this nature favors the employee's right to an unadulterated paycheck (unless there is a written agreement, and some things cannot be agreed to even with the employee's signature, even if they pinkie swear). I don't think you are going to have an easy time with this one if you try to extract cash. Much easier to discipline if the reason was foreseeable and much more reasonable and responsible of the employer to let it slide if not and if the underlying cause is reasonable (e.g., sudden illness, death in the family, house burned down, etc).