Employer Withholding PayCheck

[frany1125]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York City


I am writing here because I want to see if I need to take any legal action regarding this. Every week we have a timesheet that we must fill out and there is a deadline for it before cut off.

Now since I've been working here (3 months now) there has always been problems with me receiving my paycheck. I manually enter in my time and submit it on time every single week. The problem has been with getting my approver to actually approve the paycheck on time despite me continuing to follow up time after time after time. Finally they switched me to a different approver and I STILL had problems with her approving me on time.

Because of this the company has had to cut me an off cycle check as a result so that I am not impacted. Last week my approver failed to approve my paycheck on time despite me submitting my timesheet on time. I complained about it to HR and she had stated that she was no longer going to cut me off cycle checks since it was my responsibility to make sure that my approver approves the check.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I understand it's my responsibility to submit my timesheet on time, however is it not the other person's job to approve my timesheet as well. And believe me I have followed up through email and even text to my approver to have my timesheet approved. I get paid bi weekly. The bitchy HR lady refused to cut me a check for the last 2 weeks and only cut me a check for one of the weeks that I've worked which has really hurt me in the long run since it was the end of the month and rent was due. However NONE of what happened was out of my control. She basically tried to talk to me like I was a child stating that I should be more assertive when it comes to having my approver approve my timesheets.

Never in any job I've had, had I had a problem with this. In fact I had a job before where I was on payroll where it was my duty to approve 50 employees timesheets. This lady refused to cut me my paycheck from the last two weeks and I only got a manual check for one of the weeks I've worked and not the last two weeks. Can someone give me advice on this and tell me whether or not this is right or even legal? I googled that an employee must pay their employees the allotted time that they work despite them not turning in their timesheet which in my case, I've always submitted my timesheet on time. It has really hurt me because I don't get paid until June 15th and I have like only around $200 to hold me until then and I just don't think it's fair that it happened when I did everything I could on my part to make sure that I was paid on time and as a result the HR lady yells at me saying that it's not their fault but my fault for not following up and making sure I get paid on time.


I just need someone's legal or opinion in general on this. And let me know what I can do on my end.

 

[cbg]

Let's start out with, I don't approve of the way your HR person is handling this. Just have that straight out. It is not the way I would handle it and if she reported to me, she wouldn't be either, or I'd know the reason why.

However, it's also true that on one level, I do know why she's doing it the way she is. She shouldn't be having to approve an out of cycle check constantly.

For the record, there isn't any law that makes it your responsibility to see that your approver does her job, but there also isn't any law that says the company can't make it your responsibility. So if they say it is, it is. It is most definitely not the way I would do it - I'd make it your approver's boss's responsibility, which is where it should be IMHO. And if your approver didn't approve the check on time, it should be her head on the block.

But if the company wants to hand you that particular baby, there's not a whole lot you can do except carry it.

IF your check is not paid on time, you can file a wage complaint with the state. The problem is that late checks are going to be low priority over checks that are not received at all on the state's to-do list, and to make an impact you'd probably have to report each and every late check. Also, NY has some unique rules about what wage claims they will accept. So while it's an option, and one you can certainly consider, I can't promise you that it will solve the problem quickly, if at all.

You are absolutely right that it's not fair; nor is it right. The problem is that until you actually are paid late, none of it is illegal. And even then, the only illegal part is the late paycheck.

If I were you, I'd be dusting off my resume, even though you've not been there long. These folks don't have a clue.