HELP: Docking Pay - Salaried Exempt Utah

[thichthach]

I have a new employee at my company (employed since 10/16/06). On Monday 11/6/06, she did not show up for work and hasn't since. However, we didn't know until Thursday 11/9/06. I contacted her to find out what happened and she told me that she sent an email to her supervisor explaining that her father was in an accident and she needed to leave town to see him. She forwarded the email to me but I could see that she typed the email address wrong. She also stated that she called her manager's extension but could not get through to his voicemail. I don't know why this would be. We also have a Duty Manager who has a cell phone with him at all times and she said she tried that number also with no luck. She cannot return until 11/20/06.

(PS the reason we didn't know she was in the office for 4 days is because we have a large call center of salaried sales agents and her manager has been focused on training his 20 new employees so he didn't realize she was not there).

Here are my questions:
1) Since I didn't find out that she was gone until after I already submitted payroll for 11/1 - 11/15 pay period to our payroll service, can I take the overpayment from her next paycheck? (She has not accrued any PTO time.)

2) Can I question her about the email and phone calls? Frankly, I don't believe her. We have VOIP phones and our duty manager has a cell phone. We have gone through all our phone logs and do not show a call from her cell phone or home phone for any of the times she stated she called (we can account for ALL calls on the cell phone and not one is from her). Also, she should have received a System Administration email that informed her the email address she typed in her email was incorrect.

I don't know if I should give her the benefit of the doubt or let her go, but in the event I have to keep her (licensed sales agents are hard to come by in our industry), I'd like to know if I can get the salary we paid for the days she was not here back.

Sorry for the long and winding road...I hope this makes sense.

[cbg]

I'll have to let one of the payroll people answer whether docking the overpayment from her next check is legal in your state.

The answer to #2 is, unquestionably, yes. You have a valid reason to believe that she has falsified the information. You can question her and if you find out that she lied, you can terminate her.

[Pattymd]

I couldn't find anything in the law that would prohibit you correcting the overpayment on the next check. It was an administrative error, caused by the employee, but still, you should be OK. What the heck does she expect?

[thichthach]

THank you both for your response. That helps a lot!!