Paycheck held by company - Alabama

[shaderunner]

I am an part-time IT worker in a large church in Alabama. I recently upgraded the network servers and workstations at the job. My employer is holding my paycheck. When I enquired about it the payroll officer said she was told to do it by management becasue they are still having computer problems. I am not a contractor I am an employee. I have state, federal and local taxes cut from my check. I have never been written up or even come close to being a problem employee. I know that it is illegal. I need suggestions as to what recourse I should take.
Just for the record all of the church business applications are online and working fine. All backups are fine. All printing is fine. The mailserver and spam filters are fine. The "problem" they claim to have is that youtube and itunes and any video intensive websites stall out. And for that reason they chose hold my check. If it matters I am the only black employee.

[DAW]

Just to be sure, you are an employee? Filed a W-4 withholding instruction, have taxes withheld from your check, receive a W-2 at year end?

Assuming that you are an employee, the general rule of thumb is that for unpaid wages, you file a wage claim with state DOL (assuming that your state has a DOL), or small claims court action. A federal DOL wage claim is possible, but the feds generally have no interest past minimum wage and overtime. A "bad result" is generally not a legal reason to refuse to pay an employee. Your state is not my state and I have no idea what the best path is for you.

Assuming that you are not an employee, then in theory you are an "independant contractor" (vendor). If that is true, then your only recourse would be the courts. And a "bad result" would be more meaningful for a vendor dispute then an employee result.

Regaring race, you need to make a decision if the company is taking this action because of your race or because of a perceived "bad result". We are talking about two very different causes of action, with very different solution paths.

I do not know what you know, but I have had problems in the past with IT professionals and expectations of results. I have worked for companies who literally spent millions of dollars on software products that ended up getting scrapped without ever working. For those instances, the race of the whatever team of people wrote the product was a non-issue. Worse, I generally considered both parties at fault. The customer spent too little effort to spell out what they wanted, or even think things through, and the vendor was only interested in running the billing clock and had no real interest in delivering a working product. Custom IT products with "bad results" are a very common occurance. Any successful custom IT product in my experience always involves someone on the customer spending serious time making sure that the specifications are correct, and that every step along the way is hard reviewed. IMO, lazy customers of custom IT products always get bad results. Also, IMO, most vendors will promise anything to get the contract, and run the clock if you let them.

But if you legally are an employee, the employer is basically ****ed on this point. If you instead are a vendor, then the customer has some possibilities of recourse.

[shaderunner]

Thanks for the reply. I am certain of my status as an employee. I originally came to the company as a contractor but after about a year they liked me and asked if I would work for them as an employee and we did all the W4 and other paperwork to change my situation. I do not get a form 1098 from them I get a W2.

[Pattymd]

The employer then cannot hold your paycheck because they are dissatisifed with the job you did. Unfortunately, however, since Alabama has no wage and hour laws of its own, your only legal recourse is either an unpaid wage claim with the federal Dept. of Labor or a small claims action.