I recently noticed on my last pay check (January 6th), that I was shorted some money and hours I worked. I only work part time for this company. When I brought it up to my superior, he said it was because I worked a couple of times for over 6 hours and they deducted a 30 minute lunch pay w/o my permission....on top of not giving me my time and a half for New Years. All of a sudden we got a memo January 9th about the deductions and how they already took place and will take place immediately. But that I would be reimbursed this time only. We were forced to sign a paper on January 11th or "disciplinary action" would take place.

I always thought that they had to give us 2 weeks notice before deducting and put that on the check. They just deducted the time and cut the checks out. What if I wouldn't of been tracking my hours? Can I get a report of all the hours I've worked and what they deducted w/o me knowing? Who knows if they did this before I caught them.

If you worked, you must be paid. So, for the period that you worked straight and didn't take a meal break, you can file a claim for unpaid wages. It doesn't make any difference that the company had changed the policy or not, at least as regard to your pay.

Now, going forward, if they are going to require you to take a meal period, and deduct it from your time, then you take one. Once you know about the new policy, you can be disciplined up to, and including, termination if you refuse to follow it. The ONLY disciplinary action they cannot legally take is withhold your pay for time you actually worked, whether it was in violation of a company policy or not.