Former Employer Claims I Owe Him $ for Mileage

[3DMike]

What is the name of your state? California

I left this company 2-3 months ago (I quit, not terminated). One of the "benefits" from this job was repayment of mileage on my personal car used for work. The bookkeeper was given mileage per day by us, and had on record our distance between home and office, to deduct that amount and repay us for the remainder at the standard rate. About 6 months or more before I quit, the owner told me that they had been making an error on my mileage, in my specific case. The bookkeeper had only been deducting my home-office mileage in one direction, so they had been paying me for too many miles. At that point they fixed the error, and no one ever asked me to pay them back, suggested deducting it from future expenses, or even presented me with any tally of what was overpaid. Verbal only, not even email to document this.

Now, weeks after I've left, my former boss emails me and gives me totals on this overpayment, telling me I need to send him a check for a few thousand dollars within 30 days.

The story gets slightly more interesting, because the above didn't happen in a vacuum. Before leaving, I had promised them I would complete work on an ongoing project after my last day, on contract (verbal only: shame on ME) because I knew they wouldn't have any other way to get it done in that timeframe, and they asked me to. So I put in 28 hours working from home after quitting, and emailed him a bill for $1,700. His response was to say the work was only worth about $1,300 to him, and by the way you owe us $5,500 for this overpaid mileage, so send me a check for $4,200 in 30 days and we'll be square.

Do I have any legal responsibility to pay this?

Thanks

 

[justalayman]

Were you an employee or an independent contractor

 

[3DMike]

Full time employee.

 

[justalayman]

Well, were you overpaid your mileage?


As to the contracted work: since you didn’t establish a contracted rate, you’ll have a hard time arguing you should be paid $60.71/ hour. Thst part May end up a negotiated settlement or you could end up in (civil) court if you can’t come to an agreement.

 

[3DMike]

Yes I was overpaid mileage, over a period of 2-3 years it turns out. Not so concerned about the contracted labor really: it's on me for not getting it in writing - that's not really what I'm asking about.

 

[eerelations]

Yes I was overpaid mileage, over a period of 2-3 years it turns out. Not so concerned about the contracted labor really: it's on me for not getting it in writing - that's not really what I'm asking about.

So you were overpaid mileage, and while you worked there, you were able to pay some of it back. Why would you think they wouldn't be able to demand the rest after you left?

 

[eerelations]

So you were overpaid mileage, and while you worked there, you were able to pay some of it back. Why would you think they wouldn't be able to demand the rest after you left?

And before you ask, while they weren't allowed to take the pay-back from your payroll pay without your written authorization, they can certainly and legally deduct from your IC pay. Wait 'til they sue you, then you'll find this to be true.

 

[3DMike]

I didn't say that I paid any back. They corrected the error once they realized it and from that point on any mileage I used was compensated without error. They never ASKED me to pay any back, nor did they provide any accounting of how much overage I was paid... until weeks after I left employment with them.

Sorry, what is "IC"?

 

[3DMike]

Wait: Independent Contractor? I was never an independent contractor. I was fully an employee.

 

[3DMike]

I want to make sure I'm being clear here. My question is solely about mileage expenses when I was an EMPLOYEE of the company. The side-work (essentially) I did for them immediately after is not the focus of my question, and is really independent of the problem I am asking about. I added it just to provide a little context. Possibly an error on my part, as it seems to be causing confusion. Apologies if so.

 

[xylene]

Wait: Independent Contractor? I was never an independent contractor. I was fully an employee.

Yes, you were at the end an Independent Contractor.

Expect not to receive that money, and expect that you could be sued.

Honestly, I would not push the bill issue and see if the reimbursement issue goes away.

Don't do favors for companies out of misguided loyalty when you are leaving.

Do you have your submitted mileage reports? Records of payments for mileage reimbursements? Vehicle logs? Dispatch reports? GPS data? Anything like that? Not that you submitted, but that you actually have your copy of.

They are claiming you are overreimbursed for ~10,000 miles. Is that possible?

 

[cbg]

I don't know if you legally owe it. I know you morally do.

 

[xylene]

I know you morally do.

A moral employer wouldn't hold a large debt over an employee's head only to enforce it to extract free work from an employee who has already separated from the company.

That's akin to sharecropper peonage.

 

[cbg]

But the employer didn't ask for my opinion. The OP did.

What the employer should or should not do does not change the fact that the OP was overpaid. Morally, he owes that back. What the employer morally should and should not do does not affect that.

 

[3DMike]

I appreciate that, cbg. I guess I'll just grab some money from this mountain of cash I'm sitting on. Wait, what? This isn't a mountain of cash, but a mountain of DEBT racked up because I had to leave a company I had a 20+ year employment history with, in such a highly-specialized position that I couldn't find a new one where I lived. Why did I have to leave? The new owner had absolutely no idea how to run the business, had zero interest in the industry, made multiple rookie business mistakes (one of which erased the company's 30 years worth of credit history), and spent 80% of his excruciatingly long 4-hour workdays playing Solitaire on his iPad and checking online for cars to buy. I was the first to leave of 3 so far in a span of 3 months, in a company with (now) 7 employees total. This is a business where most employees worked there for 15+ years, prior to the switch in ownership.

Despite all that, I'd pay it if I could, because strictly speaking you're correct. I just don't have it.