Employer witheld half of my last paycheck

[DFeliciano]

I am an H.R professional. The company I worked for came from Ireland and set up in N.Y. taking over logistics/shipping warehouse operations for a large computer company. Long story short along with several issues relating to the HR home office we were 1 branch of several along the eastern US and Canada.

Our office fought long and hard about a handbook for our employees to clarify any questions relating to time off, dress codes, grievances, sexual harassment, vacation general employee issues that arise in any worksite.

We were unsucessful. YES unsucessful at getting a handbook approved to distribute to our employees.

I realized very early on in my employment with this company that they were unprofessional at best and were not a company I could have any longevity with so I started looking for a new position just about 3 months into my employment.

Now...

After 3 months I was giving all of my vacation to use 10 days.
I thought it was strange considering there was no accrual policy but things were very different so I did not question it.

The following year this June I was offered a better position and took it.
Knowing I wasn't going to be at the company long I used all my vacation/sick/personal time as I did not want any benefit of mine to go unused. I didn't mention I was not compensated fairly as well but continued to do the job and try to be happy that in this market after being laid off 2 times in the last year I would be happy for what I had until something better came along.

This employer withheld half of my last paycheck stating I had taken more time than I had accrued?

NO WHERE in any company policies I had or fascilitated did it ever say ANYTHING about vacation accrual.

I need help. I was given the shaft here so much I just can't let this go.
My offer letter says nothing about vacation being accrued and at what rate nor does the rough draft of the handbook that was never approved for circulation.

I would NOT have taken the time if I knew I would be giving it back.
This was very unfair. I even tried unsucessfully at my exit interview to bring this up and let them know my point of view.

What can I do here?
Where can I go?
Please some one help !

Any advise or direction as to where I can go for help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

 

[Patricia_Young]

As an HR professional, you should have known to confirm this with the owners before you took the time off.

Having said that, the federal DOL stated in an opinion letter many years ago, that salaried exempt employees may not have their salary deducted at termination for overtaken vacation (notice, not sick or personal time). IF you were salaried exempt, you may have a valid complaint.

If you were an exempt salaried employee, you can file a wage claim in NY only if your weekly salary was under $900/week.
http://www.labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/wp/LS223.pdf

If salaried exempt and MORE than $900/week, you can file either with the federal DOL or a civil suit.

Note, however, I am not guaranteeing success either way.

 

[DFeliciano]

I was an exempt employee and did make under 900.00 per week. I also did try to confirm what was available to me with my HR Manager who was also under the same impression. The higher ups from Ireland were and remain very elusive and evade any questions asked. We tried desperately to pin down the answers to these questions not only for ourselves but for the employees working at our site. We were told and I quote "drop it"...

No one who is currently working there is aware of this "accrual policy".
This company as I mentioned in the first message I realized very early on by way of unprofessional comments and the like was not one that I wanted to have any longevity with.

I got myself out. I have a wonderful position as a Generalist doing the same things as my previous position where my title was HR Assistant so the salary matched the title but not the job description.

The whole thing stinks. Who knows if they will ever be forced to make this right.
I will die trying because I am not a person who would make false accusations I only want what I worked for and to move on.

Thank you for the advise.
D. Feliciano