dock deliquent driver's pay?

terryo

One of our truck drivers was pulled over in a company delivery truck for a traffic violation, at which time the officer discovered there was a warrant out for his arrest due to a personal hot check he had written. He was arrested and taken to jail right then, and our truck with freight on board was impounded. In order to make the deliveries we paid to get the truck out (not much $450.00). Our feeling is to deduct for this charge from the drivers paycheck, but our company manual is vague on this. It does mention if equipment is lost, or compromised, due to negligence on the part of the driver that disciplinary action/termination could ensue.
We feel the driver made a mistake in his personal life, and we will continue to employee him, but we don't feel we should have to pick up the impounding charges because of it. Especially since we lost a day of deliveries with that one vehicle, and a couple of other employees had to be used to retrieve the truck etc. taking time away from their usual duties. I guess I wanted to see if anyone has a similar situation and how it was handled. Or, if we should let it go and chalk it up to the trials and tribs. of doing business.

LindaS

Whenever you are taking monies from an employee's check, the best advice is to get the employee's approval (signed) first. Best bet is to set up some type of payment plan, $XXX per check, for example. If he refuses, you always have small claims court but if it gets to that point you may want to rethink employing him.

terryo

Thanks for the good advice!

pork1

NORMALLY IT WOULD BE THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS; however, it reads as if the ee and the company are in a pretty good relationship and employee/employer situation will not change. Set up a repayment system as an accounts payable for the $450.00 and get the ee's signed agreement that his personal life and behaviors caused the company an unnecessary expense. The driver will most likely agree. Our drivers are on a quarterly bonus program and it has happened that for a few we have been able to stop payment on a bonus award inorder to make losses right.

PORK

terryo

No bonus plan to draw from, but that is a good idea for future. I don't think we will have a problem with him signing an agreement to payback the company on a payment paln. Thanks for the advice.