Bounced Paycheck

[SkyHog]

Someone close to me (not my wife) just had their paycheck bounce. They make very little money, and because of the bounced paycheck, their checking account went negative, so they have some NSF fees.

He is scheduled to work today. If he refuses to work until they reimburse him, can they fire him? Moreover, can he demand the NSF fees be reimbursed and have a legal ground to stand on?

I would assume he won't be staying at the job any longer than it would take to find another job, but he can't just quit. At the same time, going back to work would essentially be working for free at this point....

For reference, its a small franchisee of a large corporation that he works for.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Couple of things.

The employer doesn't offer direct deposit unfortunately. His bank automatically makes the funds available, so there's no easy way to tell when the check clears. In this case, the money was later taken away because of the bounced check, putting him negative.

Other employees say this happens a lot, and they have learned to just cash the checks at Walmart to avoid the hassle.

What state is this person in? I know in California that employers are required to have money in the bank to cover payroll checks and the employer can be on the hook for penalties; here is one reference re California employee rights: http://www.las-elc.org/factsheets/paydays.pdf

 

[Jim Logajan]

Just FYI: doing a Google search for "bounced payroll check" seems to yield a lot more useful information than asking here.