Submitted by Tom S on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 11:53
My wife worked for a company that gave us a loan for her maternity- she has been forced to leave the company for not working on Christmas this year. Which is on a saturday- she works mon-fri. They told her she needed to resign if she was not willing to work after almost 3 years of employment. She is being strongheld about this, so she walked out. I am wondering if they can hold her last paycheck (which is supposed to be paid today) because she still owes on the loan. She has been paying $10.00 per week for the loan. I am going to attempt to collect her paycheck for her. Can they withhold it? Also can they make her work on Christmas? We are a religous family.
Withholding pay check in MA
Not sure what you mean by a maternity loan. With some exceptions, as when the employer is attempting to recoup advance pay given to an employee who then quits, an employer may not make unauthorized deduction from, or withhold, a paycheck.
As for your other question, follow this link to a thread dealing with whether an employer can force employees to work religious holidays.
Maternity loan
My wifes job loaned us $1000.00 when she took her maternity leave $250/week for 4 weeks. We agreed to pay back at $10.00/week. They had to consider it a loan instead of maternity pay. The owner of the company said she needed to give her resignation for not working on Christmas and for her to give her two week notice/ which he then implied they were going to keep her pay for those two weeks to pay the loan back. I am disabled with 4 children- they know this and were trying to strongarm her into working. What am I supposed to do if they refuse to give her the paycheck?
Thank you so much for your help!
Tom