American Employer withholding pay

saintjammyswine

Good points ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Savvy_Sue

Mistral001 wrote: »

It is quite possible that the reason the manager wanted you to collect the money in person, is to thank you and wish you all the best and quite possibly give you a going away present in the form of extra cash or a gift. Your refusal to go to see her might have seemed like a snub to her.

Equally, and you can call me cynical, the manager might have called the OP late in the day and asked them to go in and collect the pay in cash in the hope that this would not be possible. Which is what turned out to be the case!

Annisele

SarEl wrote: »

In relation to pay their laws are stricter than ours - in the US there is no such thing as unpaid overtime.

Ah, thank you SarEl. I've worked in the US on a student visa, and I could never understand why my manager was so annoyed by my clocking on slightly before my shift started and clocking off slightly later. When challenged, I'd said "well obviously you're not paying me for the extra time, so what's the problem", and in return got a rant about accurate timekeeping and having to clock off early that day to make up for my previous errors. It all makes sense now!

OP - how much money are we talking about? If it's small enough that £20 of bank charges would make it not worth pursuing, then I'd put it down to experience.

WolfSong2000

Mistral001 wrote: »

It is quite possible that the reason the manager wanted you to collect the money in person, is to thank you and wish you all the best and quite possibly give you a going away present in the form of extra cash or a gift. Your refusal to go to see her might have seemed like a snub to her.

Working in a store in their capital city close to the White House would be seen as a big privilege to many Americans so thus your unwillingness to comply with a simple request on you last day (even though it would have taken 3 hours) could be seen as disrespectful. This might have touched a nerve on the anniversary of 9/11 as you were actually a foreigner working as a guest in their country. As well as that there are a lot of Americans out of work at present.

I would send an apology and leave it at that. You might get the money. I would go to the British Embassy and explain the situation to them, if you have any doubts as to the best course of action.

I'd seen the manager the previous day to pick up what I assumed was my last cheque and said goodbye then. I said goodbye to everyone, left cadbury biscuits and shortbread for the staff and said I'd send them a postcard. The manager then asked if I'd send her a burberry bag - I initially assumed she was kidding, but it turned out she wasn't, and got upset when I said no. This also all happened the weekend after 9/11 - the actual day is when I was turned away, the following day I got heavily reduced hours.

WolfSong2000

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Equally, and you can call me cynical, the manager might have called the OP late in the day and asked them to go in and collect the pay in cash in the hope that this would not be possible. Which is what turned out to be the case!

Pretty sure it was this...manager was annoyed as I was (genuinely) off ill a few weeks ago (first time that's happened for me in years for a job), plus right from the start she's had it in for me...owner of the store said he wanted me trained for tills - this never happened. Instead I was just left to wander the shop floor (I'm 25 with a postgrad degree and extensive retail experience including at managerial level). I just kept my mouth shut and did my job so as not to rock the boat, and went out of my way to help the other staff where I could (swapping shifts if requested, only taking part of my lunchbreaks, etc), but this looks to have been a waste of time.

Mistral001

Wolfsong2000

Looks like I got the wrong end of the stick. As the company not the manager owes you the money, maybe a letter to the head office is required. I would keep it short and businesslike. No mention of any difficulties between you and the manager, just that you left without getting paid because you were unable to collect the money in cash as requested by the manager. No criticisms or even implied criticism of the manager or of the firm. No comment on the method of payment (which was unusual), just state the facts. This can probably can be done in one sentence. Let them sort it all out. I would leave it at least a month before following it up if you do not get an immediate reply.