TL;DR at bottom
I'm really hoping this is a good place for this, I'm thinking I should also post to r/legaladvice but I don't know if it's predominantly legal or not, I'm just at a loss for what to do. I feel as though some advice will be legal because it appears my employer has broken the law, but I also need nonlegal advice for just how to proceed with my employer and bank.
Background: I work for a company that contracts people to other companies within my industry, I signed on in a contract-to-hire capacity with a local company. How this is supposed to work is that I will work for the contracting company for 6 months, doing work at the office of the industry company, after which time the industry company will supposedly decide if they want to hire me onto their payroll in a full time position or just let me go, at which point I would have the contracting company trying to find me more work. So for sure the contracting company is being paid by the industry company to have me there, and my hourly wage comes out of what they're paid.
I'm nowhere near the end of the 6 month contract.
The timeline: On Monday, my paycheck came in the mail. I deposited it in my bank the same day. Today, Thursday I got an email from my bank saying "HOLD NOTICE" in the title - there's a pdf form showing that the check I deposited was returned unpaid. I have very little understanding of this, so I had a little back and forth with the bank representative. It means the check bounced (insufficient funds), for those like me who didn't know already.
Apparently my bank automatically tries to deposit bounced checks a second time. They started that process today before alerting me to the issue. This could apparently take up to 5 business days before I know if it bounces again or not.
I immediately started looking online for what to do, what to know, what to figure out, and I found the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) apparently means they legally HAVE to have the money in their account to cover a check for 30 days after issuing that check.
So my first question is do I report this? Or wait to see if the check bounces again first?
The place I'm working is exactly where I want to work right now, doing exactly what I want to be doing right now. I love it, I'm enjoying it, I haven't been this stress-free in a long time. I don't know if reporting my employer will jeopardize this for me, though I assume legally they can't fire me in retaliation. I live in IL, if that is relevant.
I spoke with a higher-up at the contracting company, who swore up and down they had no idea how this could happen. They said the money is in the account now. Hopefully this means the check will not bounce again, but I won't know until the middle of next week, roughly. My worry is continuing to work when I don't even know if I'm going to be getting paid.
I spoke to the manager of the office I'm at, just to make them aware of the situation, and they put in a call to the contracting company as well, getting the same response (to my knowledge) of apologetic "I don't know how this could happen."
Okay, now everyone is aware of the situation who I feel should be. My bank tells me through the emails that if the check is returned a second time they will remove the funds from my account (so that makes me think that currently the funds from that check are still there), and if my account is positive after removing said funds, they will mail the check to me to try to collect on. If my account is negative after they take out those funds, the check will be sent to collections "until it is brought current" and I'll get a letter in the mail.
What does "brought current" mean? Would that be in regard to the check getting paid by my employer, or does it mean until my account balance is positive again? Either way, it shouldn't matter, I have money in the account that (while not enough for rent) will cover me until I find out about the check bouncing or not.
Except it won't, because tonight I look at my bank account online and it's showing negative available money. It's showing how much is in there accurately as "current balance," however the "available balance" is negative, and is an amount equal to the current balance subtracting the amount of the check I tried to deposit. So not only is the paycheck amount not in my account, they're subtracting the amount I tried to deposit from what is actually in my account. I tried to deposit $1500, and instead they took $1500 away from my current total. Is this what the "hold" meant the whole time? How does that even make sense?
I'm just so completely lost right now, I don't know who to talk to first, I don't know what I need to do, I don't know what I need to know. Right now I'm thinking I'll check my account balance again in the morning, then call my bank if it's still showing negative available. Then call my local labor board or something? What next? How do I deal with my employers (both the contracting and industry companies)?
Anything anyone who's had similar experiences could tell me would just be so so helpful right now, and if there's somewhere else I should post this, please let me know. Thank you for your time.
TL;DR - My paycheck bounced, bank subtracted the amount of the paycheck from what was preexisting in my account (so trying to deposit $1500 resulted in losing $1500) resulting in my available balance becoming negative, bank sent check out to try to collect from employer's bank a second time and says it will take up to 5 business days before I know if it bounces again or if it clears. I don't know what to do.
Submitted April 19, 2018 at 11:40PM by jacksmiles https://ift.tt/2vusoU6
