I would really appreciate any help in this matter. My mother has worked as a part time employee for a small company for nearly 2 years. The original employment agreement was for her to work from 8AM-2PM Monday-Thursday, with no allowances for lunch, breaks, or benefits. As time passed, my mother would often stay late or work more hours as needed by the company. Some days, the manager and other employees would invite her to go to lunch with them during the work day. Even when my mother stated that she was in the middle of a task or what have you, they would insist & wait until she could accompany them to lunch. I believe that the lunches were even paid by the company. This did not happen every day, but perhaps once per week. My mother would submit her time sheets for the hours worked, including the time spent at lunch. As stated, for nearly 2 years, they paid her without issue. Now, they have decided that my mother should not have been paid for those lunch periods and have presented her with a bill for thousands of dollars (they want to charge her for 1 hour per day she's worked, despite the fact that she does NOT take a lunch every day, nor are the breaks as long as an hour when she does) that she must either repay in cash or work off by working a full time schedule for her part time pay. I have been learning that Ohio labor laws are quite inadequate, but it seems that this would have to be illegal. Slavery & indentured servitude are against the law, aren't they? May my mother refuse to pay this? Is the company allowed to arbitrarily decide to enact an unwritten policy & then enforce it retroactively? By the by, my mother has never been paid overtime wages, and she has not been given the raises promised by her boss. She never made a fuss because they were "so nice" & took her out to lunch. Thank you for your help.

my mother has never been paid overtime wages

Illegal, if she worked overtime. I can't tell from your post how much, if any, she may have had. Her original schedule was for 24 hours a week, but how many hours she ended up picking up is not clear.

and she has not been given the raises promised by her boss.

Not illegal.

She never made a fuss because they were "so nice" & took her out to lunch.

Does she still think they are nice?

She should dispute this attempt by pointing out that she does not take a lunch every day and does not take an hour long lunch when she does.

If there was unpaid overtime, she should bring this up, too.

Thanks for your input. We will hire (and pay for) a lawyer if necessary, but I believe in trying to do my own research first. My main question is, can the company force her to pay for this? Can they make her reimburse them for time that they knowingly & willingly paid?

If she was overpaid, which is apparently what they are claiming, they can, but there are limitations on them unless she agrees to it.

In my state, without an employee's written consent, we can reduce an employee's net pay by only 10% to recoup an overpayment, no matter how large it was.

Unfortunately, Ohio wage and hour law is pretty sparse. The state defers to federal regulations, which don't address the legality or illegality of deducting from future pay to recover wage overpayments, except that gross pay less the deduction for overpayments cannot take the employee below minimum wage.

Is is possible that she recorded these lunches as time worked? Generally speaking, they weren't, whether the employer paid or not. Looks like an accounting and reconciliation of her time per her records is in order.