Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington
I am in sales -- my company has found that the reports they were using weren't the correct ones. Now they are saying that they overpaid me by several thousand dollars. They now want to deduct the overpayment from the balance of my checks for the rest of 2011. If they do that, I will not receive any pay. They want me to sign a form authorizing the deduction. Should I? And can they require I pay it back when it was their mistake?
1 Answer from Attorneys
They can probably require you to pay them back money you were paid, but not entitled to. You'll want to be sure that you were not entitled to it at a preliminary step. How long ago did it occur? Why do they want it paid back within the rest of this year as opposed to a longer term of repayment (i.e. why should you suffer detriment for their mistake)? Was there any basis for you to be getting paid what you were getting paid? Are there other outstanding issues between you and the employer that offsets what you supposedly owe them? These would be the questions I would want to know before agreeing to getting less money.