hey velmer, you can purchase advertising space from forkliftaction.
I rather like the way this showed up.

[url=http://www.hsaforklifts.com.au/used-forklifts/]used forklifts[/url]

hiya ed,
in a word...

yeah

it happened to me once several years ago
heh

Hey john, ??? voice of experience???

rotfl

funny how a simple question turns into a drawn out debate
so i'll keep it simple


yes the employer can request or garnish your wages to get that back if they so desire.

see.... ez peezy guys :oD

Seems your HR person just doesn't want to get involved in the audit process. It won't cost the company any more $$ if she does the audit or not, unless they send her or others involved in the audit process home early w/o pay.

I don't think that anything got "lost" except your employers money for a little while. We have all heard stories about a bank mistakenly crediting the wrong amount in a customers account. The customer starts spending the money and when they get caught they get arrested because it's not their money. Just because it might take a while for the bank (or an employer) to figure out it made a mistake doesn't mean that it is now your money.

All this topic is about is getting educated on employee rights and trying to have a healthy debate, plain and simple. Its not about doing what "Right" as some of you feel strongly about this and I understand it. I have no idea what other guys in my company get paid and I really dont care as it is none of my business. 85% of a conversation is audio and visual ques and alot of that is lost thru the internet and I feel this has gotten off topic a bit.

I did go to the HR lady this morning with my new found knowledge and beat some bushes for a bit. She said I was correct once a company in California pays an employee they can not just go take the money back via payroll deduction. It has to be a writen agreement and even at that it is shakey. We never talked about how much I was over paid but she said just keep it no matter what it is, as the effort to audit all this would cost more.

Awhile ago my company tried to discipline me for going outside the organization to retrieve information from this website. I made it perfectly clear that I had not violated any company rules and there are not any governing rules on discussing that situation. My name and location are not an accurate description of me due to that matter.

Tomas S:
In your original post you make the following statement ".......i dont want to be "That Guy" who ruins it for everyone." This strongly implies that you well know that others were "also" paid for extra time not worked & you want to go along with it to be a "Good" guy at the expense of the company that employs you. "DO WHAT IS RIGHT"!!!!
I feel confident that you & any others that were overpaid would be the first ones to let your employee know should they ever "short paid" you for hours worked. Life is a two way street.
PS: Since you are no longer in The Bahama you might want to take a minute or two to up date your FA.Com profile.

Its a simple matter, if they find out they will deduct it from your pay. Its not your money its theirs and you have no legal rights to it and they could terminate you if they feel so because it boils down to the equivalent of stealing. Best bet report it and save some real possible headaches. People lose their jobs for that everyday.

I never said I consulted a lawyer. I have a freind who has an MBA in business law geared towards a management position.

Isn't that bizarre? You got overpaid and the YOU consulted a lawyer about what your rights are to keep the money that you didn't earn? Wow!
In our town a cop was being overpaid and didn't report it. Once it was found out he was fired.
So I guess everything is moral and legal, that is until you get caught.

I really do think a "thank you" as if you noticed this, and are -sure-* they didn't make ANY mistake, but wanted you to have a little extra money as an under the table bonus, would be a better way to walk into that conversation, and it would also serve notice that you are one of those folks that actually reads, notices, understands and can do the math of what their paycheck should say, and that will serve to your managers not to screw or make a mistake with your pay in the other direction, where you would be missing some of your expected pay.
What if they paid you the time someone else was supposed to be paid for, and that person is short of their pay, how fair is it to that person. it seems pretty likely to me that the company knows how many hours were to be paid for in total.
sarcasm on
*Surely the management would NEVER make ANY mistake with an employees pay.
sarcasm off

I dont know if California laws apply in the Bahamas and if I was still there I would have inquired about those laws. I am in California and just want to get educated on California law is all. There is nothing I can do till Monday and did not find out they over paid me this time till I got home. I am not concerned about my job (I know that sound crazy) as even in this economy I have three other opportunities if I choose to leave. I will not tell my company I wont pay them back but would like to have a good conversation with the HR people when this does come up and knowing my employee rights is a good place to start.

tomas s,
1. Do you think California law applies in the Bahamas??
2. An good adage to always follow applies here "When in doubt (as it seems you are) do what is right", as Ed T suggested. An employer can find many ways to dismiss an employee and they will look very hard to do so if you tell them to go "pound sand."
3. If the $$ doesn't mean anything to you, why draw a line in the sand & jeopradize you job?

I will have no issue paying them back the money owed but for me its more the principle of the matter and knowing my law as an employee. If an employee wants to pay the money back they are only resposible for thier part and do not have to pay taxes back on that money. That information I posted was refered to me by a friend who has a degree in business law in California. She also told me that a comany has only one pay period to recoop the money then after that they are out of luck.

Tomas, you may find that you are confusing "wages paid" with "funds mistakenly supplied".
Although I would doubt that it would be considered your responsibility to inform the company, usually in legal terms, the word "wages" refers _earned_ or contractually obligated payments.
An honest mistake is usually allowed to be fixed.

After some research I can pretty much tell my company to go pound sand and they cant fire me for it.


They cannot garnish your next paychecks as it is against California law, advise them in writing the CA labor law. They could get the money back but they would go to court, unless you signed an authorization prior.

11.2 Employer May Not Collect Or Receive Wages Paid Employee. Labor Code § 221 prohibits an employer from recovering wages paid. This provision prohibits an employer from receiving from an employee any wage paid by the employer to the employee either by deduction or recovery after payment of the wage. "It shall be unlawful for any employer to collect or receive from an employee any part of wages theretofore paid by said employer to said employee."

11.2.1 The California courts have held that Section 221 is "declarative of a strong public policy against fraud and deceit in the employment relationship. Even where fraud is not involved, however, the Legislature ha s recognized the employee's dependence on wages for the necessities of life and has, consequently, disapproved of unanticipated or unpredictab le deductions because they impose a special hardship on employees." (Hudgins v. Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. (1995) 34 Cal.App.4th 1109, 1118-1119)

An employer can lawfully withhold amounts from an employee's wages only: (1) when required or empowered to do so by state or federal law, or (2) when a deduction is expressly authorized in writing by the employee to cover insurance premiums, benefit plan contributions or other deductions not amounting to a rebate on the employee's wages, or (3) when a deduction to cover health, welfare, or pension contributions is expressly authorized by a wage or collective bargaining agreement. Labor Code Sections 221 and 224.

Although a wage garnishment is a lawful deduction from wages under Labor Code section 224, an employer cannot discharge an employee because a garnishment of wages has been threatened or if the employee's wages have been subjected to a garnishment for the payment of one judgment.

I bet if they do figure it out, they will deduct what they overpaid you from future paychecks.

I have thought of doing that but I might just wait and see if they figure it out.

When my van got stolen they over paid me $15,000 for what I had on my tool list. I informed them of this and I got the "oh we would have figured it out anyways" but thier attitude was horrible about it, like I was being an inconvience on them for pointing this out. Thats why I am just waitng to see if they notice or not. My company is not the best to work for but it is not the worst either in forms of attitude, but close.