What are my rights if I’m not receiving a paycheck because they said I had to repay vacation back?
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What are my rights if I’m not receiving a paycheck because they said I had to repay vacation back?
I am a salaried employee in. I recently had surgery and only working half
days. My employer was paying me my full check for a couple of weeks. Then they told me that I was 8 1/2 days in the hole for vacation and asked how I was going to repay. Then I did not receive a check at all. They said that the hours I worked that pay period would go towards vacation deficit. Can an employer legally do this?
Asked on March 1, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Virginia
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
No, an employer may not withhold employee pay, even if the employee owes them money--which based on what you write, you do--without either employee consent or pursuant to a legal order, like court-ordered wage garnishment. You could sue them for the withheld wages.
Of course, if you do that, they could countersue you for the money you owe them from being paid out for more vacation than you had, since if an employer did accidentally pay you for unearned/unaccrued vacation, they are entitled to reimbursed--the law is clear that a mistake does not entitle you to keep the money. So you might not actually net out ahead.
They could also legally take employment action against you, unless prevented from doing so by the terms of a written employment contract, such as suspending you, demoting you, reducing your salary to make up for the "overpayment," even terminating you. That's because without a written employment contract, you are an "employee at will" and the employer may take any employment action it chooses, for any reason.
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