Employer Contracts Legal?? New Mexico

[compexpt3]

I asked a question regarding deductions in New Mexico. When my employer was shown that she can not take deductions out of my check without something from me in writing, she now says she is going to make all employees sign a contract that if we have "walkouts, breakages" or the sort, we agree to have that amount taken from our paychecks. Is this allowed?

[Pattymd]

Requiring you sign the document is allowed. Might fly, might not. I'd be looking for a more reasonable employer. Mistakes happen. Customers walk out no matter how diligent the server might be. It's a cost of doing business in the restaurant industry.

[DAW]

This sort of thing is very state specific and your state is not my state. I can say that under federal rules, there is no written authorization requirement and the only limits under federal deduction rules are based on the deduction not interfering with minimum wage and overtime. Federal rules apply everywhere, so it is not possible for state law to make federal law go away.

State law however can be more favorable to the employee then federal law, and state law varies widely from state to state. More over, when we talk about state "law", we are not just talking about statutes (actual law), but regulations, regulatory opinions, and court orders. Learning the federal rules are pretty easy, learning the rules of maybe one state is fairly easy, but learning the rules of all 50 states in this area is very difficult, especially since we are mostly talking about court decisions to decide if a "sign this or else" agreement is legal in this context. Of the top of my head, I do not think we have a NM expert among our regular responders.

[wobblycook]

I worked at a cafe that made us sign some lengthy document giving up our rights under federal legislation. Legally, I don't think you can be forced to forfeit rights enshrined under federal law, ie if your boss forced you to sign a doc giving up your rights to overtime pay or the fed min wage. You should resist any attempts to withhold "breakages or walkouts" from your pay. I am not sure what the law says about that exactly, (I am remembering that you have to approve specifically every deduction on a case by case basis, and that a blanket deduction approval in advance is invalid) but tipped workers (i am assuming you are a server), have to make at least the state minimum wage when their tips are added to their hourly wage. Get with your coworkers and organize around your common grievances- check out iww.org to get some ideas how to do so. Look up solidarity unionism. Good luck.

[DAW]

The problem with this is that federal rules very specifically say that minimum wage and overtime cannot be waived, but federal rules also say that deductions for things such breakages and walkouts are allowed as long as MW and OT rules are not violated.

[joec]

Originally Posted by compexpt3

I asked a question regarding deductions in New Mexico. When my employer was shown that she can not take deductions out of my check without something from me in writing, she now says she is going to make all employees sign a contract that if we have "walkouts, breakages" or the sort, we agree to have that amount taken from our paychecks. Is this allowed?

No its not P.M me for more advice.
JoeC