Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Tennessee
Can an employer collect a debt from you pay without your consent?
My employer took money out of my check to pay a debt they decided that I owed to them. They took the money directly out of my paycheck with out contacting me pertaining to the incident.
They determined I owed this debt based on my purchase of items on a clothing allowance that they decided was not authorized because I was getting ready to start an extended leave. (Despite the fact that they have not been able to show me any rule or reg verifying this.)
My employer is a municipality and justified the taking of the money on a city code. The code that they told me they relied on is:
''Debts owed by city officer or employee-
(b) Other employees. When any other employee shall owe the city a debt, the treasurer of the city shall not pay such employee more than seventy-five (75) percent of the salary of the city employee, the balance to be set off against the debt owed by such employee.''
The defenition of debt for the code is ''Debt means any delinquent tax or other obligation of any kind whatsoever owed the city, as of the date the tax in question becomes delinquent or the other obligation becomes due and owing the city.''
Does the city have the right to do this with out a court order or any form of due process?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Can an employer collect a debt from you pay without your consent?
No, the city cannot unilaterally decide when a debt is owed without giving you a fair hearing to dispute the charges. Unless you were specifically told not to purchase clothes because of your extended leave, you could argue that you relied on that benefit in purchasing the clothes and have now been hit with unfair surprise --- whenever people are hit with unfair surprise, there is usually an element of fraud or a denial of due process. If this happened to me, I would turn around and sue the city and see how they like being put in a defensive position trying to explain their actions. However, I could walk away from that job and never care if I heard from the city again. If you need the job for health care benefits and your only source of income, then suing the city might antagonize your boss and ultimately lead to you being terminated.
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