Employee's Unite?

Question

Ok, so withholding any employee's first paycheck is legal, so long as the employee receives it when they leave.

But is there any action the employee can take so they can get the paycheck before they leave?

Please, no stupid answers. Thanks!

And are there ANY circumstances where it IS legal for an employer to withhold an employee's paycheck? Any at all?

Answer 1

I work in employment law in Australia. The only times it is possible to withhold a pay check over here is when an employee leaves their employment without giving the required notice period. In that case the employer MAY choose to withhold pay to offset the lost notice period.

In my experience though this rarely happens although we have threatened employees with it before!

Answer 2

In NO jurisdiction that I know of is it legal to withhold an employees first paycheck until they leave.

In many places employees are paid "a week in arrears", which means that you get your first weeks paycheck at the end of the second week, the second weeks at the end of the third week, etc.

When you must be paid your final paycheck depends on State law.

As an example, in California, if the employee is fired, or if he quits giving more than 72 hours notice, he must be paid ALL his wages, including accrued vacation, overtime, everything, on the day he leaves. If he gives less than 72 hours notice, he must be paid within 72 hours of the time he gave his notice.

If the employer doesn't pay in time, the penalty is one days pay for each day that the check is late, up to a max of 30 days.

In "some" jurisdictions money can be withheld from the final paycheck to cover things like till shortages, lost or broken equipment, uniforms that haven't been returned, but most States don't allow that.

To the Aussie poster.... wow, I can't imagine our labor friendly legislators allowing something like that :-)

Richard

Answer 3

I suppose a paycheck can be withheld if you owe money to the company.