Stole my check

[Jessicar1979]

I live in North Dakota and I'm a little irate with my employer. I called for what was supposed to be my last full two week check from a company I have put two weeks notice in with and the general manager was told that he wasn't supposed to give me my check it was to all be applied to a grocery account I have with the company. That night I looked up garnishment laws for north Dakota and it states they can't garnish employee wages with out either written consent or a court order unless it was a pay day advance given via check not cash. Today I went to get my pay stub and admin refused to issue me one but the gm ended up giving it to me later. I also got a copy of my grocery account statement in case I had to prove it wasn't a garnishment for a pay day advance, but now I am a little baffled at how to proceed. When viewing my pay stub it shows zero dollars for my grocery bill under deductions and a net pay of $ xxx.xx. my grocery statement shows a payment for the exact amount of my net pay. So now this leads me to believe it's no longer a garnishment issue because they took a check addressed to me that I worked for and paid taxes on and cashed it through their company and made the payment on the bill. How can they do that without my signature? Can't I file theft? Please help

 

[cbg]

It's not a garnishment anyway; not by the legal definition of the word. Garnishment laws would not apply here.

It's unclear whether you are talking about pay for time you've actually worked, or if they bought out your notice period. Can you please clarify?

Please explain what this "grocery account" is.

 

[Jessicar1979]

A grocery account is a charge account the company opens and allows the person or persons authorized on the account to chadge items from with in the store. It is a city wide thing not an employee thing. To answer the other question it was for hours worked. I am still on the schedule until the end of next week.

 

[cbg]

And what is the arrangement by which you will pay this charge account, and how often is it supposed to be paid? Were you up to day on it?

 

[Jessicar1979]

There is no set payment schedule for anyone. Sorry I'm in a small town, but everyone pays when they can or want to. Its been like that since I started in February.

 

[Jessicar1979]

What I'm trying to figure out now is if they can endorse a check made out to me for hours I worked, that I paid taxes on? Someone there, I'm assuming the gm, took my check applied it to that account without my signature or my permission. It was not shown as a grocery bill deduction in my deductions and a net pay of 0.00 it was shown I received a check that of course I didn't.

 

[Jessicar1979]

What I'm trying to figure out now is if they can endorse a check made out to me for hours I worked, that I paid taxes on? Someone there, I'm assuming the gm, took my check applied it to that account without my signature or my permission. It was not shown as a grocery bill deduction in my deductions and a net pay of 0.00 it was shown I received a check that of course I didn't.

 

[justalayman]

A city wide thing? Are you saying the government is somehow involved with this or just that coincidentally all the employers (that you are aware of) do this?

Is this one of the recent boom towns with all the drilling or mining or whatever the quickly growing industry is?

Do you live in employer provided housing?

Did you sign anything allowing deductions from your pay when you set up this charge account? If so, did it address outstanding balances at the time of separation from your employer?

 

[Jessicar1979]

No I never signed anything and it's not just businesses with accounts. There is both business and personal accounts available and I do not live in housing nor do they provide it at this time, but yes I am in a small oil town.

 

[Jessicar1979]

I work / worked for a small grocery store in town. There is only two and they both are small. The gentleman that owns mine probably owns four more in town. When the account was set up I went upstairs gave them my address my phone number and my name and that was it it was done and opened. I never signed anything pertaining to the account.

 

[Jessicar1979]

Sorry that was supposed to be four more in state.