Employer claims to have overpaid final check...What to do

[LD1]

My wifes previous employer claims they overpaid her ~$560 on her final check and now they are requesting the money to be paid back. Not sure how to handle this an looking for opinions.

Now the details...

Where she worked, she got 80 hours of vacation pay per year, and 80 hours of sick time per year she thinks. Not sure on the sick pay though.

She left this job Oct 4th LAST YEAR. Thats what bugs me.

She had taken 67 hours of vacation and 49 hours of sick pay in the year. They say they only owe her 60 hours vacation pay (I am assuming they pro-rate since she wasnt there a whole year). So thats 7 hours overpay on vacation and the balance was normal pay that was overpaid.

She called and questioned the sick time. They said they dont keep records of sick pay past 1 year. Real convenient. :confused2:

Either way, she is sure she had at least 1 week worth of sick pay left. (hard to remember over a year ago). The reason she didnt use much sick pay, and used vacation whenever possible, is cause vacation HAD to be used or lost, and sick pay rolls over indefinably. She worked their 3 years. She was thinking she had close to 60 hours of sick pay left.

Now, if all of this came about within a month or two of her leaving, and they still had records of sick pay, I think it would be easier to work out. ANd if indeed they did overpay her, I would have had no problem paying back.

But now here we are, in a differrent tax year, over 1 year later, and no way to get to the bottom of the sick pay. We feel we do not owe them anything, and she just assumed the last check (which was for more than the 3 days she worked) was because they paid her the balance of sick pay. Never really looked at the stub.

So what would you guys do? I told her to tell them forget about collecting the money until they can prove the sick pay issue one way or the other. Right now, we are expecting a baby in 4 weeks, I havent found a job yet and UE will run out mid december unless I can get extentions, dont have the best health insurance so the baby is likely going to cost us ~3k out of pocket, and the wife will be off for 6-8 weeks at only 2/3 pay. So not really the best time financially to get hit with this....

 

[joshuabardwell]

Where she worked, she got 80 hours of vacation pay per year, and 80 hours of sick time per year she thinks. Not sure on the sick pay though.

If at all possible, try to find the employee orientation paperwork she got when she first got hired. Somewhere in there, it should say the policy for sick time vs. vacation.

She had taken 67 hours of vacation and 49 hours of sick pay in the year. They say they only owe her 60 hours vacation pay (I am assuming they pro-rate since she wasnt there a whole year). So thats 7 hours overpay on vacation and the balance was normal pay that was overpaid.

Pro-rated vacation days is common, yes. Otherwise, somebody could quit on January 1 and be owed their pay for the full year's worth of vacation time.

She called and questioned the sick time. They said they dont keep records of sick pay past 1 year. Real convenient. :confused2:

Great! You don't have any records. My records show that I accrued 240 hours of sick time (80 hours per year * 3 years) and didn't use any. By my records, you owe ME $$$. I was going to let it slide, because it wasn't worth the hassle, but if you want to take me to court, that'll be fine.

 

[brin]

LD - Just my opinion but like you say...they have waited way too long to make this claim...The burden is on them ...they are the ones asking you to pay back money they supposedly paid to your wife due to their error...so I think you are right to dump this all back in their laps and basically say...prove it...but I would not say much else without spending some time with an attorney...many attys. will not charge for the initial consultation..and don't charge much to write a letter..Her past employer could be fishing for a response ...something in writing from you they could use against you...Possession is nine tenths of the law....been hearing that for years...:2cents:

 

[brin]

If at all possible, try to find the employee orientation paperwork she got when she first got hired. Somewhere in there, it should say the policy for sick time vs. vacation.



Pro-rated vacation days is common, yes. Otherwise, somebody could quit on January 1 and be owed their pay for the full year's worth of vacation time.

Great! You don't have any records. My records show that I accrued 240 hours of sick time (80 hours per year * 3 years) and didn't use any. By my records, you owe ME $$$. I was going to let it slide, because it wasn't worth the hassle, but if you want to take me to court, that'll be fine.

LD - I agree here with Joshua....100% ..said it better than I did...

 

[jerrybob]

If she doesn't need to use her former company as a future reference.....just ignore their request. For that small amount.......they will write it off. If they get real pushy.....unlikely.......tell them you do have the means to pay but offer to pay installments of ten dollars a year for the next 56 years. :thumbsup:

 

[bcp]

If they have no sick pay records, what are they basing the overpayment claim on, to show it wasn't sick pay?

Bruce

 

[joshuabardwell]

tell them you do have the means to pay but offer to pay installments of ten dollars a year for the next 56 years. :thumbsup:

This is a last resort, because at that point, you have agreed that you owe them the money, and it will be hard to change your mind later if you end up in court.

 

[murphy1244]

If they have no sick pay records, what are they basing the overpayment claim on, to show it wasn't sick pay?

Bruce

Yes that's what I think too. How the --- can they make that claim?

 

[joshuabardwell]

many attys. will not charge for the initial consultation..and don't charge much to write a letter..

Yes. If, for $50, you can get a lawyer to write your response, that will probably be money well spent. The lawyer can help tailor the response to minimize any accidental culpability you might create, and having the response on the lawyer's letterhead will show you mean business. If you were playing poker, this would be a big re-raise in response to a small raise. "Not only am I not going to let YOU push me around, I'm going to just cut to the chase and start pushing before you even get a head of steam."

 

[dave1949]

I would ignore them. I doubt they would turn that over to a collection agency.

I had a similar experience in one of those surprise! --you are laid off-- things. Later they claimed they needed money back. I didn't respond in any way and that is the last I ever heard of it. My thought was, you have to be joking.