nsf payroll checks/elder care problems

[sto61]

Enfield Ct

My wife just quit her homemaker/companion job at a local company due to several reasons. The most recent reason was a NSF payroll check that bounced on our account nearly a week later. It was eventually recovered, save for the NSF fee, but no apology or explanation was forthcoming from the owner/payroll person and she was treated in a very abrasive, mean spirited manner. Also, she has information of the lack of follow-up on elder care, up to allowing unsanitary conditions to go on at a client for months at a time, even after she had reported the conditions to her supervisor. Is there any advice you can give on a state agency or some place to report this misconduct under Connecticut law?

 

[cbg]

There is no state agency to which you can report the lack of apology, the abrasive manner, or a mean spirited employer. There is no state or Federal agency charged with overseeing such things, which are not illegal in the first place.

If there is a state agency to which the unsanitary conditions should be reported, your wife as a professional should already know what it is.

 

[sto61]

So there no penalty to a company passing a bad payroll check to an employee?

 

[cbg]

If the money had not been recovered, there would have been. But there are far too many people who haven't been paid at all, for any agency to pay attention to a situation where in a single instance, a paycheck bounced and has already been made good.

 

[swalsh411]

If your wife didn't find a new job right away she might be eligible for unemployment benefits. Not being paid on time or being given bad checks is considered a good reason to quit.

 

[cbg]

She can try. But I have my doubts as to whether or not one bounced check that was made good is going to be enough to get benefits.

 

[commentator]

She should file for unemployment, but I don't think her chances are too very good. For two reasons. First, though they may have treated her abrasively, she did get the paycheck issue taken care of. If it happened more than once, it would have greatly strengthened her case that she had a good job related reason to quit. But once, with quick restoration from the company isn't really that serious.

Then if she tries to say the reason she quit was that she was so appalled and saddened by the conditions and treatment of patients they permitted, the first thing that will be asked is, "What steps did you take to resolve the problems before quitting?" She will need to document that she did discuss this situation with the employer, and that they made no effort to change it.

There is definitely a place she should have reported this situation in the care facility regulation department of the state, probably through the state Department of Health, and we gather she did not. She has nothing to lose by reporting it now. You can't really say she quit over this issue, because the only reason she quit from the sound of it is that her paycheck bounced and they were snappish to her about it while resolving it.

But she definitely needs to file for unemployment. It costs nothing, and she doesn't have anything to lose if denied. It might be possible she would be approved and then she'd have a bit of money to get until she can find something else.