Fines
earlearl
31 Posts
Tx.employer wishes to fine employees for not calling into work $100.00 per day; if employee quits without 2 weeks notice $100.00 per day = 10 working days notice = $1,000.00 fine; any handbook policy violated $100.00 fine. Ofcourse the employee would know about fines and sign his acknowledgement/approval before actually going to work for employer.
Any one know if this is not ok since employee gives consent before actually starting to work for employer?
Any one know if this is not ok since employee gives consent before actually starting to work for employer?
Comments
Or does the employer intend to suspend the employee without pay for the amount of time that equates to the amount of fine? It may work for non-exempt, but employer would have trouble with exempt status.
The amounts that are identified seem to be rather high for some "technical" and procedural violations. What are they doing if the employee yells at a supervisor, for example? Or fails to meet a deadline?
No time off from work is paid. No sick leave/no vacation time.
Employer contracts employee out and if employee does not work==does not get paid and neither does employer. So if employee is off work, employer is making at least $100.00 daily.
What type of work are these employees doing at a flat daily rate? Sounds like a whole host of state and federal FLSA issues would be in play here, like minimum wage, overtime premiums, and the like. At $100.00 per day/violation, I hope that the employer is paying them at least $150.00 per day for an eight hour day, since otherwise they would be flirting awfully close to the minimum wage after a $100.00 offset.
A wise attorney once told me - "There are a lot of perfectly legal business practices that are just plain stupid business practices." If this is a legal practice, it sounds like it falls into the latter category.
An employer may not withhold or divert any part of an employee's wages unless the employer:
(1) ordered to do so by a court of competant jurisdiction;
(2) is authorized to do so by state or federal law; or
(3) has written authorization from the employee to deduct part of the wages for a lawful purpose.
There are very few cases discussing this law -- but I think that the Texas Workforce Comission (which enforces the Texas payday law) would fight the employer on this plan. First, the handbook type autorization does not seem specific enough (I can see a fact finder saying that the provision was buried in a long handbook). Second, although the purpose is not unlawful, I am not sure that the agency or the court would not find that it is against public policy. Third, if the employee's pay goes below minimum wage, or correct overtime is not paid due to the deduction, the employer can get in trouble under both federal and state law. Most employers woul not want to be the "test case" in this type of scenario.
In my opinion, an employer is better served by using non monetary discipline to curb absentee problems (written warning or counseling, too many times and you are fired).
Good Luck!
Good Luck.