Company/Union negotionas then purchase of company by another Minnesota

[LJRowe1966]

I started in Middle of August with my employer and when interviewed was told that company was in negotiations with the union and that when they were finalized all new employees starting since the the start of negotiations would recieve a $2. pay increase plus retro to when they started. In December towards the end of the month they finally settled and I did not see anything in writing about a .50 cent retro, but it was mentioned after all us new employees were paid our retro for the full $2.00 an hour. Well since then Another company finalized the purchase of the company and then three days later all us new employees are called one by one to office where they said we had to pay it all back and when I asked about the .50 cents being deducted from repayment the HR person said it was taken out. I get home and look at the check stub and the amount they want me to pay is exactly the same amount as the retro I was Paid. They said they made a mistake and overpaid us. We all were told we had to pay it all back and their excuse was that the new company wants their money. but they had no control until this last tuesday when it was legalized. We are going to go as a group and talk to the company ceo or president about this because we have heard that HR person could be scamming company and employees he also claims he is an INS officer working for immigration and he has a lot of pull in his decisions. I only know he has only been with the company for maybe two months and already had a two week vacation and is now pulling this on us. We even asked if we had to pay it back several times and waited several days before spening it and they said it was ours, then when this HR person came in from his vacation now we have to repay it. I am confused, frustrated and curious to how this can have happened. There are atleast 15 of us maybe more. and all new employees involved with this time fram from July to present are the ones being taken. How can they legally do this. And can they really do this?

And when they gave the retro the gave it to us on the same check as our regular paycheck and so all deductions were also taken out of the total of both reg pay and retro including taxes and my retro was 1519.75 and my reg was 381.95 and after taxes, pensions, medical insurance my check was net 1136.61 and the amount they are collecting is 1519.75 so basically I am not getting a check for that week even though I put in 47.75 hours of work. How fair is this. Any comments or suggestions or even referals. All will be appriciated.

Thank You Much
Linda