Exempt suspension and they paid him!

Leslie

I had an exempt employee who was suspended for one full work week beginning April 15, 2002, for a serious department violation. The department provided payroll with an attendance record that listed those days under "Other" as "A-7" - which meant nothing to payroll. In a box labeled "Explain other," they wrote "Suspension." However, our payroll specialist blew right past it and paid the employee for the work week. It's May 23, 2002, and this has just been noticed. Now the controller wants to take the money back. Can we do this? And if yes, how? Don't know if it makes any difference but I'm in Arizona.

Don D

Here's my guess. I think it depends on what he was told and given during his suspension notice session. If he was told without pay, I think you can recover it and will tell you why I think that. If it was not covered and he perhaps left with the idea that it was with pay, you may be in a pickle. We have on two recent occasions recovered 'accidental or erroneous payments' to employees. An ee did not follow our eye protection glasses purchase policy and went to the provider of his own choice, paid for the glasses and we sent through paperwork from HR to payroll and they paid him the amount on his next check. In the other case, an ee initiated paperwork to 'cash in' vacation that he did not have in his bank and it was paid to him by mistake. In both situations, HR wrote the ee a letter explaining the situation, the mistake, whose mistake it was and that the company is recovering the money and when. Attorney advice suggested that "An employer has a right to correct its mistakes, even when it may mean retracting, through payroll deduction, an erroneous payment to the ee." Somebody will shout the bit about reducing wages below minimum wage being illegal and an employer's inability to deduct from checks for various reasons; but, this is the advice we paid for and took.

Leslie

The emp was very well aware it was without pay. The suspension was supposed to be for two weeks. When business needs required we bring the emp back after the first week of suspension, the emp mentioned to the director of HR that it didn't make much difference as he/she had already gotten a loan to pay bills. It begs the question of, knowing it was supposed to be without pay, why it wasn't brought to our attention. We're pretty good sized, 830 employees, maybe there was a hope it would fall through the cracks.

Don D

I would not hesitate to recover the money and I would see that he got an explanatory memo. I'm curious as to why the company suspended him for two weeks, then caved in and brought him right back. I know you said business conditions necessitated; however, you guys surely discussed backing this guy's job up and covering it prior to suspension. And I presume the company is just letting the second week of suspension vanish now. Sending a strange message to this ee and others with whom he will talk. His remarks about not worrying about it since he already got a loan to pay bills are pretty flip. I've already got out my legal pad ready for full documentation moving forward on this guy. Sounds like a termination just waiting to happen.

Leslie

The suspension occurred over an incident (lost keys) that caused a bunch of extra work in the midst of a massive system change out. This employee had tons of expertise - a shift manager who works 4/10s. As the incident occurred less than a couple hours into his second day worked, he had to use 28 hours benefit time for the rest of that work week (because he had worked, we had to pay), then the next week's pay was lost to the suspension. I thought that was sufficient, but the CEO and CFO decided to go a second full week. Unfortunately they had to backtrack when it became apparent two weeks plus the initial 28 hours was longer than the department could afford to have this employee gone. And now of course, the whole thing is compounded because he was paid for the suspension.