Human Resource Blog

Terminated Employee

	Termination
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An employee was terminated. He drove the company vehicle home, and claimed he could not return it. We had to pay 2 employees overtime pay to retrieve the vehicle? Can we deduct the cost of retrieving the vehicle from the terminated employees final paycheck?

Sadly, the employer can probably not recover these expenses from the employee. Some states severely limit the deductions that an employer can take from an employees paycheck. In a number of states, even if the employee had damaged the company truck, it could not be deducted from his paycheck.

A few states do permit employers to make deductions from employee paychecks, but only if the employee has authorized those deductions in writing, in advance. IT is unlikely that the employer has such authorization. You could certainly hire a lawyer and try to recover the expenses from the employee — but the lawyer\\\\\\\’s fee is likely to be more than the recovered salary.

A better way to handle this in the future is for the employer to take possession of the company truck before terminating the employee. That can be done by asking the employee for his keys. If he refuses, the employer should have a spare set of keys and if necessary should move the truck to another location. To be fair, the employer should probably give the employee a ride home or pay for a cab to take him home. Needless to say, if the employee has tools or other personal possessions on the truck, he must be permitted to retrieve them.