Paychecks
swynia
31 Posts
I have multiple locations outside of Minnesota. When paychecks come in, they are processed and then sent via and overnight service to my outlying locations.
I have a manager in one of those locations that handed over an employees' check to someone other than the employee. (The employee at this time had been termed for no call, no show.) While the employee was working for us, he introduced this individual as his brother to our manager, as the brother was looking for work and had come in to fill out an application.
I now have the ex-employee's girlfriend calling me asking if that last check had been cashed. The ex-employee is in jail and she states that this other person was not the ex-employee's brother.
The check has been cashed, but by a check cashing service. The ex-employees name is written on the back of the check, but when I compare it to the signatures in the ex-employees file, it doesn't match.
What as a company are we liable for in this kind of situation? What kind of practices do you have in place to prevent a situation like this from occuring?
(If I am aware that an employee has termed when I process the pay checks, I mail them to their home. When this check was sent to the division, we were still playing the no call, no show waiting game.)
I have a manager in one of those locations that handed over an employees' check to someone other than the employee. (The employee at this time had been termed for no call, no show.) While the employee was working for us, he introduced this individual as his brother to our manager, as the brother was looking for work and had come in to fill out an application.
I now have the ex-employee's girlfriend calling me asking if that last check had been cashed. The ex-employee is in jail and she states that this other person was not the ex-employee's brother.
The check has been cashed, but by a check cashing service. The ex-employees name is written on the back of the check, but when I compare it to the signatures in the ex-employees file, it doesn't match.
What as a company are we liable for in this kind of situation? What kind of practices do you have in place to prevent a situation like this from occuring?
(If I am aware that an employee has termed when I process the pay checks, I mail them to their home. When this check was sent to the division, we were still playing the no call, no show waiting game.)
Comments
Practices in place -- we use only direct deposit. Another thing you could do is have a policy that checks will be released only to the employee, mailed to the employee's home address, or direct deposited.
As far as what you do now, I think I would report it to law enforcement to see if they can figure out who cashed the check and if any crime has been committed. I'm not sure I would speak with the girlfriend -- only the employee (another lesson learned).
Good luck -- it's kind of a mess!
Cheryl
The problem is that you are not able to deal directly with the employee. If you don't have some release from the employee, I am not sure I would even be talking with girlfriend. How do you know she wouldn't do the same thing. I would think that you could mail a copy of the cashed check with the signature/endorsement to the employee's last know address. I think it would be up to him at this point to contact the bank and/or to "file charges" if the check was cashed illegally/wasn't his signature. I don't think it is up to you to do this.
Hope this is a lesson for your employee that released it. (I know how frustrating it is trying to deal with employees/supervisors "long distance". They think they are doing good, but just don't think through things.
E Wart
We will only give out a person's paycheck to anyone other than the individual, when we have a signed piece of paper, which identifies by name and a picture ID of the person, so identified. Any manager in our company who would do such would give up the value of any potential bonus, the cost of writing a new check owed to the concerned individual.
We employers are responsible for the distribution of individual income; I have never heard of any opportunity with paycheck distribution of this nature, where a company was not at fault. I recommend that you cut the x-employee another check and send it to his new address (in jail) or better yet take it to him and get his signed acknowledgement..
The individual has a right to pursue the thief that stole his paycheck and cashed it at a "pay in advance vendor". The company has an obligation to get the concerned individual a paycheck. The company should not get involved with the search of the thief, only support the investigation if he choose to do so. The company can support by acquiring a copy front and back of the cashed check and give it to whoever!
PORK
1. Check your state's statutes about final payroll checks and ensure that your practice falls within any mandatory guideliness.
2. Review your policy(ies) on final payroll checks and payroll checks that are left undelivered at the end of the designated pay days. If you don't have something in place, think about amending your policy to require that undelivered payroll checks be returned to you or an appropriate designate. Also include in writing whether checks will be mailed or hand delivered.
3. If hand delivery is allowed and checks may be retrieved by folks other than employees, 'require' written authorization identifying to whom the check can be delivered, and confirm identification if the person picking up the check is someone other than the employee.
As for liability, your minimum liability at this point is at least a payroll check. If you can't prove without a doubt that it was cashed by the employee, you will have to reissue it and in a timely manner. You might as well suck it up and agree that your company is liable. Any next level liability may stem from identity theft issues if there prove to be any. If you have in-house investigative staff (i.e., security), allow an investigation or encourage one with outside investigators on the premise that the original check may be stolen. Let the evidence speak for itself, and resolve the issue accordingly after an investigation. In the meantime, tweak your policies and process.
Best wishes.
A few years ago I had almost EXACTLY the same situation. Employee doesn't show up for work (because he is in jail), sends "family member" in to pick up final check (but employee sent a note as required) and girlfriend calls claiming he never received his check so like you we looked at the cashed check and sure enough it didn't match previous signatures - HOWEVER we were lucky with our problem because somehow we found out that the employee DID have the "family member" sign and cash the check and give him the money THEN told the girlfriend to call and claim he never received it thinking we would feel responsible and issue him another check!! I realize your situtation is a little different (we had the dummy employees permission to release the check) but it is something to keep in mind...
Actually, this is what I was suspecting may have happened to the original poster as well.
How did the friend of the ex-employee know to go in and pick up the paycheck anyway?
I think you are being squeezed.
After reading the posts and talking with my boss, (and my payroll company) I've sent the ex-employee a letter stating that he will need to go to the police and/or the bank of issue and file an affidavit of forgery. The ex-employee will have to do some leg work on this in order for us to re-issue him a check.
I'm curious to see what happens and because of this I am almost done writting an 'Official' policy and procedure on this particular item.
I find it very sad that we live in a world where you have to have a policy on something like this.
I remember having fun during the investigation as I felt like Sherlock Holmes. That is, I had fun until I realized who the guilty party was.
Each person who had their check stolen had to sign a document certifying that they had not recieved the original check. After some discussion, management decided it was better not to call the police (to save bad publicity) but turned it all over to our insurance company. We were reimbursed for every penny except for the vendor who refused to sign anything. We reissued all the checks, even the one to the vendor.
By then they had discovered a small discrepancy on the mail clerk's application and fired him for lying on it.
Good luck!
Nae
Just my perspective from my years working in a financial institution.