Legal Question in Employment Law in Virginia

Refusing to Pay Salary Due to Employee On-the-Job Error

Can an employer, striving for the highest quality of service/product possible, establish a rule that states should an employee (working on a production basis) make an error (including typographical) during the course of performing their specific function, the first penalty will be the withholding of all pay related to the time it took the employee to carry out their function--no matter how long, and the second penalty is termination?


Asked on 5/04/03, 5:00 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Refusing to Pay Salary Due to Employee On-the-Job Error

The withholding pay provision part of your proposed rule would in all likelihood violate state wage and hour compensation law requirements

for employees.

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Answered on 5/04/03, 10:38 pm
Stephen Teller Stephen A. Teller, Attorney at Law

Re: Refusing to Pay Salary Due to Employee On-the-Job Error

If this is a Washington State case, I am fairly sure that withholding is illegal. Termination for poor performance is not illegal, but I think they've got to pay you for working, even if they don't like the job you did. Try contacting the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries for a more definitive answer and some inexpensive assistance with this issue. Good luck!

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Answered on 5/07/03, 3:26 pm


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