- Jurisdiction
- Oregon
Good afternoon!
I am in Oregon and I have a co-worker who was potentially overpaid by our employer and our employer has deducted the overpayment amount from her next paycheck.
Specifically, our company handbook states (and I apologize that I do not have the handbook in front of me -- it is normally available in our employee portal and is not displaying at the moment) that employees are only entitled to holiday pay if the holiday falls on a day that is an employee's normally scheduled day to work. It could be said that this particular employee's normally days off are Tuesdays, but we have been so short staffed the past few months that she has been working, on average, about every other Tuesday for 3 months. She was paid for Christmas and New Year's Day as holiday pay.
However, on the subsequent paycheck, her holiday pay was deducted from her check. She was not notified in advance that this was going to happen. I do know that e-mails were sent to some of the managers to inform HR of employees that normally have Tuesdays off because HR had become aware that all employees were paid for these holidays and those normally with Tuesdays off should have been excluded. This e-mail was sent after the employees were paid.
The company handbook isn't specific enough to determine how many Tuesdays or hours in a set time period an employee must work to qualify as "normally working" a specific day. I don't see where Oregon law specifically addresses recouping a mistaken overpayment -- at least how a company is allowed to get their money back. I saw the federal case of Duncan v. Office Depot, but that may be apples to oranges. She has two separate issues -- 1) Can she claim that she normally works Tuesdays because she has worked enough of them within the past 3 months and 2) is it legal for an employer in Oregon to garnish her future wages to recoup what the employer considers an accidental overpayment?
She has been to HR. They said it is a payroll issue. Payroll said to speak to HR.
Personally, I would let it go. However, I told her I would ask other opinions. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
I am in Oregon and I have a co-worker who was potentially overpaid by our employer and our employer has deducted the overpayment amount from her next paycheck.
Specifically, our company handbook states (and I apologize that I do not have the handbook in front of me -- it is normally available in our employee portal and is not displaying at the moment) that employees are only entitled to holiday pay if the holiday falls on a day that is an employee's normally scheduled day to work. It could be said that this particular employee's normally days off are Tuesdays, but we have been so short staffed the past few months that she has been working, on average, about every other Tuesday for 3 months. She was paid for Christmas and New Year's Day as holiday pay.
However, on the subsequent paycheck, her holiday pay was deducted from her check. She was not notified in advance that this was going to happen. I do know that e-mails were sent to some of the managers to inform HR of employees that normally have Tuesdays off because HR had become aware that all employees were paid for these holidays and those normally with Tuesdays off should have been excluded. This e-mail was sent after the employees were paid.
The company handbook isn't specific enough to determine how many Tuesdays or hours in a set time period an employee must work to qualify as "normally working" a specific day. I don't see where Oregon law specifically addresses recouping a mistaken overpayment -- at least how a company is allowed to get their money back. I saw the federal case of Duncan v. Office Depot, but that may be apples to oranges. She has two separate issues -- 1) Can she claim that she normally works Tuesdays because she has worked enough of them within the past 3 months and 2) is it legal for an employer in Oregon to garnish her future wages to recoup what the employer considers an accidental overpayment?
She has been to HR. They said it is a payroll issue. Payroll said to speak to HR.
Personally, I would let it go. However, I told her I would ask other opinions. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.
